France is lobbying EU countries to lift sanctions on Uzbek-Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov as part of a prisoner release with Azerbaijan. The proposed deal to release several French citizens held in Azerbaijan is holding up EU efforts to renew restrictions against about 2,600 individuals and entities imposed in response to President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. As a compromise, EU countries have agreed to a one-week extension of the sanctions regime to continue negotiations.

France and Slovakia earlier vetoed a full 12-month renewal unless Usmanov was spared. A failure to reach agreement would have delisted all other Russian nationals and companies. France's request stunned fellow EU diplomats, with one describing it as "astonishing".

The EU has justified the sanctions on the grounds that Usmanov has particularly close ties to Putin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged EU partners to renew the sanctions and not to provide concessions. Luxembourg has backed rolling over the EU sanctions, but indicated that if Usmanov is delisted, then it also wants Mikhail Fridman, one of Russia's richest men, to be taken off the sanctions list.