The European Union has removed Russian billionaire Mikhail (Mikail) Gutseriev and Belarusian businessman Viktor Shevtsov (Viktar Shautsou) from its sanctions list, according to an entry published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 13 October 2026.
Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2313 confirmed that two entries were deleted from Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus and the country’s involvement in Russian aggression against Ukraine. The regulation stated that the deletions followed an evaluation of the relevant circumstances.
The two individuals removed were listed as Mikail Safarbekovich GUTSERIEV (entry 125) and Viktar Arkadzievich SHAUTSOU (Viktor Shevtsov, entry 258).
Who Is Mikhail Gutseriev?
Mikhail Gutseriev is a Russian billionaire with an estimated fortune of $7.7 billion, according to Forbes. He built his wealth across energy, potash, hospitality, and other sectors, with significant business interests in both Russia and Belarus.
The EU first imposed sanctions on Gutseriev in 2021, and the measures were subsequently renewed on multiple occasions. In 2025 — the same year he was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the Chechen Republic” — the stated grounds for renewing his sanctions focused on his business interests in Belarus, including energy, the potash industry, and the hotel business. The Council described him at the time as a long-time acquaintance of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, arguing that this relationship had allowed him to accumulate significant wealth and influence among the Belarusian political elite.
Gutseriev’s Court Challenge
Gutseriev appealed his designation to the General Court of the European Union, which ruled in his favour. The court’s decision paved the way for the Council to remove him from the sanctions list.
During the proceedings, Gutseriev’s lawyers argued that the businessman had held no business interests in Belarus since June 2022. They stated that he was neither chairman of the board of directors nor a shareholder of AO Mospromstroy or AO Promyshlennaya Finansovaya Gruppa Safmar.
The lawyers further asserted that Gutseriev had transferred the majority of his shares in the companies Russneft and Neftis to his brother on 10 June 2021 — eleven days before the initial sanctions were adopted.
Additionally, the court heard that Gutseriev had been merely an acquaintance of President Lukashenko, and that, as someone who had invested significantly in Belarus, he had maintained professional relations with the country’s political leadership out of prudence.
The removal of Gutseriev and Shevtsov marks one of the relatively rare instances in which the EU has lifted sanctions following a successful legal challenge. However, even successful litigants are frequently re-listed on modified grounds. In this case, no re-listing has followed, and both entries have been formally deleted from the EU’s Belarus sanctions framework.
