According to the European Commission representative, effective mechanisms are being discussed at this stage for the use of frozen Russian assets to reinstate a Ukraine damaged by hostilities.
European Commission spokesman Christian Wiegand said at a briefing in Brussels on Thursday (May 11th) that the European Union has a legal view that Russian assets could be used to reinstate Ukraine.
“At the moment, EU countries are discussing state-owned Russian immobilized assets, in particular the assets of the Central Bank,” Wiegand said. said.
He added that there is an ongoing debate about how to work with such assets and how to use the income from them.
“We must comply with the law and we cannot simply confiscate such assets,” the European Commission representative said.
According to him, the authorities are trying to figure out what else can be done with these unprivileged assets to use them in Ukraine’s interests.
Russian frozen assets in Europe: what quantities are we talking about?
According to European Commission spokesman Christian Wiegand, the frozen assets of individuals and entities on the European Union’s sanctions lists amount to approximately 24.1 billion euros in the EU.
Seizure of Russian assets in favor of Ukraine: how did the Kremlin react?
The Kremlin did not react in any way to the information regarding the EU’s legal right to transfer the frozen assets of the Russians to rebuild Ukraine after the war.
However, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, commented on the same news – the transfer of the assets of the sanctioned Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev to Ukraine by the United States. On Wednesday, May 10, US Attorney General Merrick Garland approved this transfer of funds.
“This is basically theft and it undermines the international community’s confidence in Washington,” Peskov said.
At the same time, Putin’s press secretary threatened that US actions “will return to Washington like a boomerang”. In addition, Peskov believes that the decision to confiscate the assets of politicians and businessmen under Russian sanctions in favor of war-ravaged Ukraine “contradicts the sacred right of private property of the United States.”
Recall, on May 10, the media wrote that the US Attorney General authorized the transfer of confiscated Russian money to Ukraine. According to journalists, last year the US Department of Justice accused Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev of violating sanctions against the Russian Federation. He financed the Russians who supported separatism in Crimea. Now its financial assets will be transferred to Kiev.
Earlier, the media also reported that about $8.3 billion worth of Russian assets were frozen in Switzerland. According to the press secretary of the Swiss Ministry of Economy, the country’s authorities consider it legally possible to use the money of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to restore Ukraine after the war.
Source: Focus
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