By John Irish
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - France should explain itself after it pushed for the lifting of EU sanctions on Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov, Estonia's foreign minister said on Tuesday, describing the move as sending the wrong signal at the wrong time.
European Union envoys agreed on Tuesday to drop two high-profile billionaires, Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, from the EU's Russian sanctions list in a compromise deal to renew sanctions on roughly 3,000 other listed individuals and entities.
Earlier this month, France shocked other EU members when it pushed for Russian-Uzbek metals tycoon Usmanov to be removed from EU sanctions, citing national security concerns.
"One country put a very strong position on the table that these two people must be delisted, otherwise we're actually losing the sanctions regime," Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. "This is a totally wrong message."
"They need to explain themselves. There was no deep explanation," he said.
France came under pressure from Azerbaijan, where at least two French nationals are detained, three European diplomats told Reuters last week.
They added that Paris had indicated in private that Baku was using Usmanov to "blackmail" it over the case of two French citizens held in Azerbaijan, an assertion rejected by Baku.
But there has been no public comment by the French presidency, which diplomats said had taken the lead on the dossier.
Usmanov has long been associated with luxury assets in Western Europe, including property on the French Riviera, and was placed under EU sanctions in 2022 as one of Russia's wealthiest businessmen.
Multiple European officials said France's position had left them perplexed, hurt Paris' credibility and roiled efforts to present a united European front against Russia.
"The delisting is sending a very bad signal at a very wrong time when Russia is actually putting more pressure on Ukraine and attacking the civil infrastructure people," he said.
(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Howard Goller)
