EU ambassadors remove Gutseriev and Shautsou from the EU’s Belarus sanctions list

EU ambassadors decided on 7 October to remove Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev and Belarusian entrepreneur Viktar Shautsou from the EU sanctions list introduced over the situation in Belarus. According to Belarusian media, this became known this week.

For Gutseriev, this is not a complete lifting of restrictions. He remains under European sanctions over support for Russian aggression against Ukraine: on 23 July 2026 he was added to a separate list tied to that issue. The EU Council explained this by the businessman's activity in sectors of the Russian economy that bring significant revenue to the Russian government, and by his support for the Russian authorities through investment projects.

The reason for removal from the Belarus list was the businessmen's victories in court: after them, Brussels sees no legal grounds for keeping the restrictions.

Gutseriev is the founder of the Safmar group, which operates in oil and gas, real estate and media. In Belarus he is known primarily for building the Nezhin mining and processing plant through the company Slavkali. He was hit with EU sanctions on 21 June 2021.

The EU Council described him as a longtime friend of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who supported him financially and benefited from it. The grounds cited included investments in the Belarusian economy, in particular the construction of the plant, and his presence at Lukashenka's inauguration on 23 September 2020.

Gutseriev challenged the sanctions in European courts more than once. At first he was unsuccessful: in September 2023 the EU General Court rejected his claim, and in May 2025 the EU Court of Justice dismissed his appeal. Then the picture changed: on 22 October 2025 the EU General Court annulled the decision to extend the sanctions for 2024, and on 13 May 2026 it annulled their extension adopted in February 2025.

The court found that the EU Council had not provided sufficient up-to-date evidence that Gutseriev continued to support Lukashenka or benefit from him. The court considered the businessman's past investments and personal contacts insufficient grounds for keeping the restrictions in place.

Viktar Shautsou previously chaired the supervisory board of the Belarusian bank Reshenie, also known as Infobank and Trastbank. The European Union imposed sanctions on him in August 2024. The EU Council linked the entrepreneur to the production of security holograms in Belarus through the companies Tekhnakhimtreid and Holographic Industry. According to European officials, he profited from a monopoly created by the state.

Later, the grounds for extending the sanctions were his activity as honorary consul of the Philippines in Belarus and probable links to Reshenie bank and the Dudutki museum complex. But on 22 April 2026 the EU General Court annulled the 2024 and 2025 sanctions decisions against Shautsou. The court found insufficient the evidence that he profited from a state monopoly or supported Lukashenka.

Economic expert Volha Loika, editor-in-chief of an economic publication, called the decision "absolutely predictable." In her words: "No sanctions are eternal; the grounds for imposing them run out and change. […] And if we expect sanctions to be a tool of permanent pressure, we need to understand that this doesn't work, and this is clearly not the last such case."

Loika believes there may be more such decisions, in particular as a result of court appeals. She did not rule out that Belarusian officials under sanctions over involvement in repression may also start turning to EU courts in future.

If anyone has grounds to believe the businessman still benefits from cooperation with the authorities, Loika said, the relevant arguments need to be selected and proven. The decision has entered into force, she added, and in Gutseriev's case the "Russian" sanctions remain.

Separately, the Czech outlets Deník N and Respekt, citing confidential documents of Czech police and security services, reported that in 2022 Gutseriev tried to hand the US FBI secrets of Lukashenka and Putin in exchange for lifting sanctions on himself and his business. According to these reports, the deal did not go through, and the sanctions on the billionaire were not lifted at that time.