By Bloomberg News Mikhail Fridman’s removal from the European Union’s sanctions list may give the Russian billionaire a path to restoring some of his shareholder rights at his Europe-based group, but it’s unlikely to translate into a quick financial windfall.

A 37.9% share in Luxembourg-based LetterOne Holdings and LetterOne Investment Holdings was Fridman’s main asset outside Russia before he was sanctioned in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine.

As of the end of 2025, the group had $21.5 billion in net assets under management and was holding almost $500 million in unpaid dividends owed to sanctioned shareholders, according to the companies’ financial reports.

But the 62-year-old Fridman may be hard pressed to recover the funds, according to a survey of five international sanctions lawyers conducted by Bloomberg News.

As long as the tycoon remains under US and UK sanctions, his ability to receive dividends or other economic benefits will be limited, said Sergey Glandin, a partner at BGP Litigation in Moscow who specializes in sanctions law.

European banks and other financial institutions would most likely expect special licenses from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and its UK counterpart because of concerns about secondary sanctions, he said.

Fridman and another Russian tycoon, Alisher Usmanov, got sanctions relief last week, making them the highest profile Russians to be removed from the EU list so far, and the first such cases to follow sustained lobbying by one of the key member states.

The decision was part of a compromise between France, Luxembourg and other member states that allowed the bloc to extend sanctions on nearly 3,000 Russian people and companies for three years instead of six months. Luxembourg lobbied for Fridman as it faces a roughly $16 billion arbitration claim from the tycoon over the freezing of his assets. Usmanov was delisted at France’s request as Paris sought from Azerbaijan the release of a French citizen imprisoned there, while Baku had lobbied for the Russian tycoon.

Though Usmanov doesn’t have significant assetsed in Europe, the decision could be more consequential for Fridman because of his stake in LetterOne. His case highlights the complexity of international sanctions on Russian tycoons, as relief in one jurisdiction does not necessarily allow their businesses to operate as usual elsewhere.

Even setting aside US sanctions, LetterOne has substantial management and operational infrastructure in London. At the same time, the country’s sanctions regime bars UK individuals and companies from making funds or economic resources available to sanctioned people. Prime Minister Andy Burnham assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the UK would keep Russian tycoons under sanctions.

Fridman, who holds Israeli and Russian passports, might seek to transfer dividends owed to him from a Luxembourg bank to Turkey or the United Arab Emirates, according to a person with ties to the tycoon’s team, who declined to be identified because the information is private. Whether this strategy will work is yet to be seen. “Some banks will still shun him because he will be outside their risk appetite, but some will not as he is a lucrative customer,” said Anton Moiseienko, an associate professor of law at Australian National University who specializes in economic sanctions. Fridman declined to comment.

LetterOne welcomes the decision to remove Mikhail Fridman from the EU sanctions list. We have always been clear that we do not believe the sanctions placed on him were justified, as was found to be the case by the General Court of the Court of Justice of the EU,” the group’s press service said in a response to questions. “This decision does not change LetterOne’s strategy or governance: US and UK sanctions laws still apply.”Fridman’s fortune stands at $10.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He was among the first generation of post-Soviet billionaires and one of the oligarchs who amassed vast influence under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. He co-founded Alfa Group, which grew into one of Russia’s largest private conglomerates, with interests spanning oil, banking, retail and investment.

After Fridman and his partners in 2013 sold their stake in TNK-BP to Russian state controlled oil giant Rosneft PJSC for $14 billion, he moved to London, but sanctions pushed him out of the UK. The tycoon complained that the restrictions became so severe that at times he lacked enough money even to eat at a restaurant.

Since its founding in 2013, LetterOne Holdings has grown into a major investment group with stakes in businesses across several continents, including UK health and wellness retailer Holland & Barrett, Spanish supermarket chain DIA, Dubai-based telecom operator Veon Ltd. and Turkish mobile operator Turkcell.

LetterOne isn’t under sanctions after its founders carried out a rapid overhaul of the ownership structure in 2022, which helped keep the group outside the sanctions net. Fridman’s 37.9% stake was frozen and LetterOne didn’t disclose its ownership structure.

At the time, sanctioned billionaires German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev, Fridman’s university classmates with whom he began his business career in Russia, sold their stakes to unsanctioned partner Andrey Kosogov. The question now is whether Fridman will withdraw his arbitration claim against Luxembourg.

“Luxembourg’s positive role in the vote to lift the sanctions is the very important factor the legal team is taking into account,” said a spokesperson of Moscow-based law firm Dyakin, Gortsunyan and Partners, which represents Fridman’s interests in the proceedings.