Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
Azerbaijan has pardoned a French national jailed for espionage after EU capitals agreed to lift sanctions on two prominent Russian oligarchs in a divisive move driven by France as it pursued a secret prisoner release deal with Baku.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev granted a pardon to Frenchman Martin Ryan who was imprisoned for espionage in March and sentenced to 10 years, according to a decree published on Wednesday.
The release followed tense eleventh-hour talks that risked voiding the EU sanctions regime imposed on thousands of Russian individuals and entities over Moscow’s war in Ukraine. France had delayed the three-year extension of the measures because it demanded the removal of Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek-Russian oligarch apparently linked to the prisoner exchange.
Luxembourg used the negotiations to revive its longstanding request to delist another Russian oligarch, Mikhail Fridman. Because EU sanctions require unanimity among the bloc’s 27 governments, Fridman was also included in the final deal.
The French demand to lift the asset freeze and travel ban imposed on Usmanov surprised other EU member states and drew criticism from Kyiv and several of its closest allies. Latvia eventually relented after Paris promised Riga closer co-operation on air defence and access to France’s nuclear deterrence umbrella, according to the Latvian government.
The Élysée did not immediately comment on the Azerbaijani pardon or on the recent EU negotiations. A second French national remains detained in Azerbaijan.
The EU sanctions against Usmanov were imposed soon after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when the bloc said he had “particularly close ties” to Vladimir Putin and described him as a businessman whose position depended on the Russian president. Usmanov has disputed the EU’s allegations and launched numerous legal challenges against his designation.
Diplomats have said the Usmanov case marked the first time sanctions imposed over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine had been explicitly linked to a prisoner release. It was also the first time France, a strong supporter of Ukraine, had pushed for an exemption — a tactic previously used by the Russia-friendly governments of Hungary and Slovakia.
