Hungary is pressuring European leaders to remove sanctions on a billionaire Russian oligarch who owns Holland & Barrett.

Budapest wants EU sanctions on Mikhail Fridman to be lifted, the Financial Times reported. Mr Fridman, a Russian-Israeli citizen, owns significant assets in the UK including the health food chain and a £65m London mansion.

The businessman has been under EU and UK sanctions since March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was sanctioned by the UK Government for “obtaining a benefit from or supporting the government of Russia” through his links to the country’s financial sector. Mr Fridman, who is valued at $13bn (£10bn), co-owned Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa, until late last year.

Hungary has demanded his removal from the EU list of sanctioned individuals in exchange for backing the renewal of sanctions on 2,000 other businesspeople and politicians tied to the Russian state, the FT said.

Led by strongman Viktor Orbán, Hungary is the most pro-Russian member of the EU and has repeatedly pushed back against the sanctions regime. Mr Orbán has claimed sanctions have done €19bn (£16bn) worth of damage to Hungary’s economy.

He told state radio in January: “Now the issue of the rollover of the sanctions is on the agenda and I have pulled the brakes and asked EU leaders to understand this cannot continue.

“This is not good that we pay the price of helping Ukraine ... and they cause us problems.”