The European Jewish Congress (EJC) has elected Moshe (Viatcheslav) Kantor, a Russian-Israeli businessman, for a fifth term as its president. Kantor had been under EU sanctions since 2022 until March 2025.
“As EJC president from 2007-2022, Kantor prioritised the fight against antisemitism, strong cooperation with European institutions and governments, launching and developing key projects for Holocaust memory and the security of communities”, stated the European Jewish Congress
Moshe (Viatcheslav) Kantor, who holds Russian and Israeli citizenship, was included in the EU sanctions list in 2022. The justification for the sanction stated that Kantor was responsible for material or financial support for actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, and that “Kantor is a Russian oligarch who is a major shareholder in the Akron Group, one of the largest Russian fertilizer producers. He has close ties with President Vladimir Putin.”
In June 2022, Kantor transferred a 45.1% stake in Akron (a Russian producer of mineral fertilizers) to the trust management of three top managers.
In 2023, the World Holocaust Forum Foundation, whose trustee was Kantor, was liquidated in the UK. The decision to disband
was made after Vyacheslav Kantor was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in 2022.
Kantor challenged the sanctions in the European Court of Justice, but the court refused him, considering that it followed from the documents on the structure of Akron Group, almost all shares in PJSC Akron and its subsidiaries were held through intermediary companies by an organization whose beneficial owner was Vyacheislav Kantor and his children.
However, in March, the journal of the European Union published official data on the lifting of EU sanctions against several Russians, including Moshe (Viatcheslav) Kantor. Hungary achieved the lifting of sanctions against those Russians.
