Kremlin calls businessmen who criticize Russia to get sanctions relief ‘traitors’

Kremlin on Thursday said that Russian businessmen who voiced anti-Russian views in an effort to get personal Western sanctions on them lifted were traitors ready to sell out their country.

The European Union has just removed three Russian business leaders from its sanctions list - which it introduced to punish Moscow for its war in Ukraine - the EU’s Official Journal showed on Thursday. Personal sanctions for many others were extended however.

When asked to comment on the development, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was unlikely that Europe itself could explain the logic of the decision-making process behind the sanctions.