23JUL

Bulgaria delists Lukoil boss and Kirill

1 min read

19:27UTC

Bulgaria secured the removal of Lukoil founder Vagit Alekperov and Patriarch Kirill from the 21st package, protecting its EUR 3bn court fight over the Neftohim Burgas refinery.

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Key takeaway

A personal listing symbolic in Brussels would read as evidence in Bulgaria's arbitration against Lukoil.

Bulgaria secured the delisting of two names the package had been expected to add: Vagit Alekperov, the founder of Lukoil, and Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, both dropped from the 21st sanctions package at Sofia's request ¹. Lukoil is Russia's largest privately owned oil company. Bulgarian foreign minister Velislava Petrova confirmed the exclusion, drafted as early as 12 July and carried into the final text.

Bulgarian president Rumen Radev argued that blacklisting Alekperov would be 'shooting ourselves in the foot'. Lukoil holds an active EUR 3bn compensation claim against Sofia over the 2023 nationalisation of the Neftohim Burgas refinery, the largest in the Balkans, and sanctioning its founder personally risked handing the company fresh ammunition in that arbitration. A personal listing that reads as symbolic in Brussels reads as evidence in a Bulgarian courtroom.

The carve-out cuts against the package's own logic. The 21st package cleared three failed COREPER votes, the EU ambassadors' committee, before adoption on 23 July , yet still carried a personal exemption. Sanctioning the shadow fleet while shielding Lukoil's founder shows how one member state's domestic liability can bend a bloc-wide instrument, and it hands Moscow a talking point about selective enforcement.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Vagit Alekperov founded Lukoil, Russia's largest privately owned oil company, and Patriarch Kirill leads the Russian Orthodox Church. Both were removed from the EU's newest sanctions list at Bulgaria's request. Bulgaria nationalised Lukoil's Neftohim Burgas refinery, the largest in the Balkans, in 2023. Lukoil is now suing Bulgaria for EUR 3bn in compensation. Bulgaria's president, Rumen Radev, argued that keeping Alekperov personally sanctioned would be 'shooting ourselves in the foot', because it could hand Lukoil extra legal ammunition in that court fight. This shows how a country's own legal disputes can shape which individuals get added to, or removed from, EU sanctions lists, separate from the underlying question of Russia policy.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Bulgaria's request to delist Vagit Alekperov rests on a narrow legal calculation: Lukoil's EUR 3bn compensation claim over the Neftohim Burgas nationalisation is litigated separately from EU sanctions law, but a sanctioned Alekperov could argue Sofia's seizure was politically motivated rather than a neutral regulatory act, strengthening his side's case.

Delisting a founder while the company he built, Lukoil, remains sanctioned is legally coherent under EU practice, which targets named individuals and entities separately; it lets Sofia protect its litigation position without formally softening sanctions on Lukoil itself.

What could happen next?

Precedent
The carve-out shows EU sanctions listings can be reshaped by a single member state's domestic litigation exposure, a precedent other states with pending Russia-linked claims may now test.

Sources:Novinite

Mentions:Bulgaria →Vagit Alekperov →Lukoil →Rumen Radev →Lukoil Neftochim Burgas →Moscow →Rosneft →Poland →Russia →Balkans →Sofia →Brussels →COREPER →

First Reported In

Update #19 · Second chokepoint doubles Med freight

Novinite· 23 Jul 2026

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