Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the European Union has frozen Russian assets worth EUR 13.8 million, as announced by European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders on Tuesday, 12 July.
«For the moment, we have frozen funds coming from oligarchs and other entities worth EUR 13.8 billion, it’s quite huge,» the commissioner reported in Prague.
At the same time, he said the largest portion of this amount – more than EUR 12 billion – consists of assets frozen by five member states. He did not say which.
Reynders said he hopes other EU member states will start tackling Russian assets soon.
German Minister of Finances Christian Lindner said his country has frozen Russian assets worth EUR 4.48 billion by mid-June.
Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force reported at the end of June that member states have blocked assets owned by Russia oligarchs and officials worth more than USD 30 billion, as well as USD 300 billion owned by the Russian Central Bank.
REPO was founded on 17 March, three weeks following the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to increase economic pressure on Moscow. The group includes high ranking financial and legal officials from US, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Italy, Britain and European Commission.
So far the EU has applied six packages of sanctions on Russia. These sanctions extend to 98 companies and 1 158 private persons, including President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov. Their assets in the EU have been frozen and they are prohibited from entering the EU.
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