France is reportedly lobbying EU countries to lift sanctions on Uzbek-Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov as part of a prisoner release with Azerbaijan, according to FT citing sources

Sanctions delisting of individual oligarchs has historically been handled name by name and through unanimous EU member state consensus, which makes any single member's lobbying effort the start of a process rather than an outcome, and the pattern in prior cases is that legal challenges at the bloc's courts have proceeded in parallel with political negotiations. Tying a delisting to a prisoner release with a third country is a less common construction; comparable arrangements of this kind have tended to be negotiated quietly and announced as packages, with the sequencing of releases and sanctions action the principal point of contention. The actor set matters here: the individual named has prior form in contesting listings through litigation, France's role suggests the proposal has at least one sponsor inside the Council, and unanimity rules mean any holdout member can block it. What distinguishes this from standard delisting cases is the conditionality, since using sanctions relief as a bargaining instrument sets a precedent other designated individuals and their backers have historically sought to exploit. The follow-ons to observe are whether other member states confirm the report, whether the individual's legal cases are withdrawn or settled, and whether any package is structured as a full delisting or a narrower licensing carve-out. As a sourced report rather than a decision, it remains at the exploratory stage.