Azerbaijan frees French prisoner after EU lifts sanctions on Russian billionaire

French citizen Martin Ryan is being released from Azerbaijani prison, one day after Paris successfully lobbied Brussels to lift sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

Ryan, who was convicted of espionage charges, was the only French prisoner among several individuals pardoned by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday. 

The Financial Times reported that the delisting was part of a deal that could see French nationals released from detention in Azerbaijan. Paris has significantly stepped up its role in the South Caucasus in support of Armenia, a pro-EU democracy that has spent decades locked in conflict with Azerbaijan.

For more than a week, France held up the EU’s entire framework of individual sanctions in support of Ukraine with its surprise campaign to drop sanctions on Usmanov, who made his fortune in mining and telecoms.  

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week the push to delist Usmanov was a matter of national security, but the clash put at risk the expiry of the 3,000-odd listings if the EU’s 27 countries couldn’t agree to a deal to renew them. A deal was finally reached Tuesday.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha criticized the decision to delist Usmanov and banking magnate Mikhail Fridman, calling it “shameful and unjustifiable.”

But French European Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad called Tuesday’s outcome a win for European solidarity.

“We keep a very strong united front on the sanctions on Russia,” Haddad told POLITICO. “We have these discussions. You have consideration of national security and others among member states. But the most important is that we’ve shown once again our unity and our resolve to put economic pressure on Russia for its war of aggression.”

This developing story has been updated.