Ukrainian officials are demanding that these frozen assets be used to help their country rebuild after the war.
About 17 billion euros in assets of Russian oligarchs and corporations have been frozen in the European Union’s seven member states after sanctions were imposed on Russia in response to the war in Ukraine, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders announced on Saturday. “So far, the assets of 90 people have been frozen, equivalent to more than 17 billion euros in seven member states, including 2.2 billion in Germany,” he said in an interview with the media of the German group Funke, including the daily Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
At the beginning of July, Didier Reynders estimated at around 13.8 billion euros, mainly in five countries, the asset freezes of oligarchs or members of the Russian elite in the EU sanctioned by the Twenty-Seven. “If it is criminal money seized by the EU, it is possible to transfer it to a compensation fund for Ukraine,” the commissioner also noted in the interview published on Saturday. Ukrainian officials are demanding that these frozen assets be used to help their country rebuild after the war. “However, this sum is far from sufficient to finance the reconstruction,” warned Didier Reynders.
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Western sanctions have also led to the “freezing of 300 billion euros” of the Central Bank of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves in the world, an amount that could be used as a “guarantee”, the commissioner estimated. “Ukraine also wants to use this money for reconstruction. From my point of view, it is at least possible to keep these 300 billion euros as a guarantee until Russia voluntarily participates in the reconstruction of Ukraine,” stressed Didier Reynders.
Since the invasion of Crimea in 2014, a total of 1,236 people – including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, but also members of the Duma and oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven – and 115 entities have been subject to asset freezes and entry bans to the Crimea subject to EU.
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