EU to lift sanctions on pro-Russian Slovak businessman defended by Fico

7 months ago 32

The European Union plans to revoke sanctions against two Russian businessmen and a Slovak national associated with the pro-Kremlin biker group Night Wolves, whose case Prime Minister Robert Fico has repeatedly supported and discussed with top EU officials.

The EU has imposed asset freezes and travel bans on some 2,000 individuals and companies deemed to be involved or profiting from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But some of these sanctions expire on 15 March, including against Slovak businessman Jozef Hambálek, for whom Fico has advocated several times.

Since he returned to power in October 2023, Fico has raised the question with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his state visit to Germany in January.

“[Hambálek] has done nothing to hurt Slovakia’s national interests and it is unprecedented that a citizen of Slovakia and the EU has been included on a sanctions list for nothing else but his fondness for motorcycle riding,” Fico told a press conference at the end of January.

Hambálek was put on the sanctions list in the summer of 2022 for allegedly supporting the Kremlin’s interests in its aggression against Ukraine.

“Jozef Hambálek is the president of the Europe chapter of the nationalist motorcycle club Nightwolves MC based in Slovakia. He can be connected to the Russian President Vladimir Putin and other representatives of the Russian government,“ the current EU sanctions list reads.

Similarly, the US government accused the Night Wolves of being directly involved in the Russian annexation of Crimea, as well as in the separatist revolt in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

In 2018, the Russian leaders of the parent Night Wolves organisation presented Hambálek’s bikers’ club as their “European staff”. During the bikers’ show in August 2017, the Slovak businessman shook hands with Putin.

Hambálek has long-standing contacts with politicians from Fico’s Smer party, especially Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák, who appears to be a passionate biker too.

Two diplomatic sources told Reuters that in addition to Hambálek, the EU is not extending sanctions targeting two Russian businessmen – Arkady Volozh, a co-founder of Russian internet giant Yandex, and Sergey Mndoiants, in charge of government relations for the Russian conglomerate AFK Sistema PAO.

One of the diplomatic sources said the three listings were considered “indefensible legally”. The sanctions on all these entrepreneurs will therefore expire on 15 March.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]