Belgium has frozen more than €50 billion of Russian assets within the framework of European sanctions

On February 24, the Belgian government froze Russian assets worth €50.5 billion. These funds belong to 1 129 individuals and 110 companies from the Russian Federation, De Morgen reports.

According to the spokesman of the Ministry of Finance of Belgium, Francis Adeins, the funds were frozen in connection with the sanctions introduced against the Russian Federation for its aggression against Ukraine.

He clarified that for some Russian individuals and legal entities, sanctions have been in effect since 2014 — since the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea, however, for most of the individuals on the list, restrictive measures were introduced in February of this year after the Russian Federationʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

• The European Union is preparing a legal basis for the transfer of frozen Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war.
• Kyiv called for the use of Russian assets for the restoration of Ukraine. The idea was supported in Britain, the USA and Canada. On July 4-5 in Lugano, Switzerland, Ukraine presented a $750 billion recovery plan and called for the use of Russian property frozen due to sanctions for reconstruction.
• According to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the value of such assets is $300–500 billion.