The decision was taken by ambassadors of EU member states on October 7, Radio Liberty reported. Gutseriev was added to the Belarus list in June 2021, when the Council of the EU described him as a friend of Lukashenko who financially supported his regime and profited from it.
Among the grounds cited for the restrictions were the businessman's investments in the Nezhinsky mining and processing plant and his attendance at Lukashenko's inauguration in September 2020.
Gutseriev contested the sanctions for several years. In September 2023 the General Court of the EU dismissed his suit, and in May 2025 the Court of Justice of the European Union rejected his appeal. In October 2025 the court annulled the 2024 decisions, and on May 13, 2026, it annulled the decision extending the sanctions from February 2025.
The court ruled that the Council of the EU had not presented sufficiently current evidence that Gutseriev retains a connection to Lukashenko's regime or benefits from it, The Moscow Times wrote.
The lifting of the Belarus restrictions does not free Gutseriev from European sanctions entirely. On July 23, 2026, he was added to a separate list tied to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The Council of the EU justified this by the billionaire's activity in sectors of the Russian economy that generate significant budget revenue, and by his support for the Russian government through investment projects.
Entrepreneur Viktor Shevtsov was removed from the Belarus sanctions list along with Gutseriev, The Moscow Times reported. Shevtsov does not appear on other EU sanctions lists. For both men the reason was court victories, after which Brussels found no legal grounds to maintain the restrictions.
Gutseriev is the founder of the industrial and financial group Safmar, whose business spans oil extraction, coal mining, real estate, retail and media. Forbes estimated his fortune at $7.7 billion.
In 2024 the Czech publications Denik N and Respekt reported that Gutseriev had offered Western intelligence services information about Putin's and Lukashenko's plans in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. To that end he met twice with representatives of the FBI and Czech police in Prague in 2022.
Such decisions are coming in a series. In September the European Union lifted sanctions on USM Holdings founder Alisher Usmanov and Alfa Group co-founder Mikhail Fridman, both of whom were listed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. France and Slovakia sought the removal of restrictions on Usmanov amid talks on the release of prisoners in Azerbaijan, while Luxembourg interceded for Fridman, who is demanding $16 billion from the country over the freezing of his assets.
As Bloomberg wrote, these cases drew interest from other Russian businessmen, who began studying the possibilities for lifting restrictions.