Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned French national Martin Ryan on Wednesday, one day after the EU lifted sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. Ryan had been serving a 10-year prison sentence in Baku after a March spying conviction, although it was not immediately clear whether he had been released. Three European diplomats said Paris believed Baku was using Usmanov’s sanctions case to pressure France over two French citizens detained in Azerbaijan. The second, identified by French weekly Challenges as Saur employee Anass Derraz, received a 12-year sentence in 2025 on corruption charges and was not pardoned. Azerbaijan rejected the alleged pressure campaign. The Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman delistings were the EU’s first removals of sanctions against Russian billionaires who had not publicly condemned the war in Ukraine, exposing divisions within the bloc. Ukraine called the decision shameful and unjustifiable.