"Friend Misha" Disowned Lukashenko
- 22.10.2025, 19:57
Russian oligarch Gutseriev has won a lawsuit over EU sanctions.
An EU court has ruled to lift sanctions against Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriev, whom Lukashenko called "friend Misha," for the year 2024. But his action did not extend to 2025, and he remains de jure on the sanctions list.
"The Court annuls the EU Council's decision of February 26, 2024 in so far as it concerns Mikhail Safarbekovich Gutseriev," the document said.
The annulment concerns decisions to extend sanctions imposed "in connection with the situation in Belarus and Belarus' involvement in Russian aggression against Ukraine."
In his attempts to get the sanctions lifted, Mikhail Gutseriev argued "that since June 2022, he no longer has any business interests in Belarus" and provided a schedule of asset sales.
In particular, his representatives stated in court that his project to build a mining and processing plant in Nezhin was nationalized by the Belarusian state in 2023. Gutseriev even cited letters of the Council of Ministers of Belarus dated August 30, 2023 and September 5, 2023, signed by the director of Slavkaliy, which say that the project was nationalized and Slavkaliy is no longer responsible for it. And that it will now be done by the state-owned company Nedra Nezhyn, in which Slavkali has no participation. The investment agreement between GCM Global Energy, which created Slavkaliy, and the government of Belarus was also terminated.
Gutseriev also claimed in court that he no longer has any real estate in Belarus, including the Renaissance Hotel in Minsk.
The sanctions will remain in effect as long as Gutseriev's name is on the blacklist. At least, this is the period until February 28, 2026.
Reminder, in 2024, Czech publications Denik N and Respekt with reference to classified documents of the Czech police and intelligence services wrote that Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev in 2022 tried to sell secrets of Lukashenko and Putin to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in exchange for the removal of Western sanctions on himself and his business.