The European Union (EU) has frozen a total of 68 billion euros in Russian assets — most of which are in Belgium, POLITICO reported on November 18, citing an internal EU Commission document.
The wide-ranging paper seen by POLITICO reportedly covers all parts of the Commission’s interactions with Ukraine.
Belgium accounts for €50 billion of the €68 billion figure; Luxembourg is second with €5.5 billion. Together with Italy, Germany, Ireland, Austria and France, they reportedly account for over 90 percent of the frozen assets.
But the EU doesn’t know how much of Russia’s national reserves is frozen in the EU. The internal document gives the approximate figure of €33.8 billion, but adds that “this is now under assessment, so not to be quoted.”
The Commission is reportedly still waiting for the Council to approve a decision to make sanctions evasion an EU crime, which would facilitate the confiscation of assets in case of criminal conviction.
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POLITICO says the problem — somewhat surprisingly — is Poland, which has stalled the process. While Warsaw is entirely on board, it first needs to pass a national law, which it’s in the process of doing.
News Unrolled (NU) reports that earlier, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, described the freezing of Russian assets in Europe as “theft”, noting that this phenomenon is not the first year that it has existed, and that the EU does not only target private individuals’ funds, but also Russian state assets.
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