Patriarch Kirill and Lukoil founder excluded from EU's draft Russia sanctions package – sources
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and Lukoil founder Vagit Alekperov have been removed from the draft 21st EU package of sanctions against Russia.
Source: European Pravda, citing diplomatic sources
Details: Patriarch Kirill and Alekperov were excluded from the draft package at Bulgaria's request, diplomats from several EU member states told European Pravda.
The sources said the most problematic issues in the sanctions package have been resolved – largely by watering them down.
The ban on EU entry for Russian combatants will be significantly narrowed in scope; a proposed ban on EU imports of cod, pollock and certain other fish will be removed from the package entirely; and plans for strict restrictions on LNG originating from Russia and related tankers will not go ahead either.
One positive development is that the member states have agreed in principle on the need to temporarily freeze the price cap on Russian oil at US$44.10 per barrel.
Other unresolved issues remain. Following the latest Coreper meeting on 10 July, it was reported that Austria has renewed its request for the lifting of sanctions restrictions on Rasperia and unfreezing of its assets. Rasperia is a Russian investment company linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska which has billion-dollar legal claims against a subsidiary of Austria's Raiffeisen Bank.
Background:
- As European Pravda has reported, EU ambassadors have failed to agree on the content of the EU's new Russia sanctions package.
- European Pravda previously reported, citing its own sources, that the 21st Russia sanctions package may be approved on 13 July at the EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels, but in a watered-down form – without Patriarch Kirill's name on the sanctions list.
- Bulgaria demanded the removal of Patriarch Kirill from the package, and was later joined by Italy.
- The question of lifting sanctions on assets linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska was last raised publicly in October 2025 during discussions on the EU's 19th Russia sanctions package.
- Raiffeisen has maintained the largest presence of any Western bank in Russia since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, although it has made attempts to sell its Russian subsidiary.
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