Finland and Poland demanded to transfer the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs to Ukraine
The two leaders vowed to raise the issue with their EU counterparts and insist that funds be used to rebuild Ukraine after the war.
“We fully support Ukraine in its war with Russia. We are with you. You are defending your country, but also European values,” said Sanna Marin in a video message to Ukrainians, which they recorded with Morawiecki during his visit to Helsinki.
“You are fighting for your freedom, for your sovereignty, but we understand very well that you are also fighting for European values, for the security of Europe, for the future of Europe. And so we will always support you. And these are not just words – there will also be deeds and facts,” said the Prime Minister of Poland.
In total, Russian assets worth 68 billion euros have been frozen in the EU, Politico wrote, citing a European Commission document for official use. Of this amount, 50 billion euros is accounted for by Belgium, 5.5 billion by Luxembourg, and the rest by Germany, Ireland, Austria and France. A large amount of funds stuck in Belgium is due to the fact that Euroclear operates in the country, which deals with the settlement of international securities transactions, their storage and maintenance. Luxembourg, in turn, is home to the large clearing house Clearstream.
At the same time, the European Commission does not know exactly how much Russia’s foreign exchange reserves are frozen. Approximately this amount could reach 33.8 billion euros. “This amount is now being estimated, so it does not need to be quoted,” the document says.
According to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Russia has lost access to foreign exchange reserves worth $300 billion due to sanctions from the US, EU, UK, Japan and other countries for starting a war in Ukraine.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised that the EU would not stop at freezing Russia’s reserves, but would find a “legal” way to confiscate them. “Of course, our goal is not so much to freeze as to confiscate assets, this is our task. However, it is not so easy from a legal point of view. We uphold the rule of law, but that means we have to follow the rule of law, so we have a lot of work to do to create an impeccable legal foundation. [для конфискации активов]”Von der Leyen said.
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