The European Union will not impose sanctions on the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and the chief of Russia’s largest private oil company, after Bulgaria vetoed the proposal.Patriarch Kirill, a vocal support of President Vladimir Putin and public backer of the war on Ukraine, had been expected to be included in the latest round of financial penalties that the 27-member bloc was considering.Kirill “consistently justified and supported Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine,” calling it “sacred,” according to the sanctions proposal seen by RFE/RL.
However, according to EU officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations, the latest draft, which is expected to agreed upon in the coming days, removes Kirill from the 42-person list.Another prominent Russian figure whose name has also been removed from the final draft: Vagit Alekperov, head of Lukoil, Russia's largest private oil company.Brussels has long pushed to include Kirill under the sanctions it began imposing on Russia starting in the weeks after the start of Moscow’s all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022.But that effort was consistently blocked by the previous Hungarian government under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, on grounds that the EU should not target religious figures.Orban and his party were voted out of office earlier this year, removing a major thorn in the side for the EU where its Russia policy was concerned.According to EU officials who were granted anonymity to speak freely on the subject, Bulgaria has now voiced similar concerns to Orban.Like Orban, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev, who took office after elections in May, is seen as friendly towards Russia.Radev’s representatives could not be immediately reached for comment.News of the exclusion of Kirill from the final sanctions draft was first reported by Ukrainskaya Pravda.The exclusion of Alekperov from the list was motivated in part by Lukoil’s considerable market presence in Bulgaria, EU officials told RFE/RL.
