Almost a year after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, assets of Russians worth €5.32 billion were sanctioned in Germany.
This was reported by the Federal Ministry of Finance at the request of Die Welt.
The amount consists of the assets of Russian individuals and legal entities, which include the Central Bank of Russia, as well as other individuals and companies on the EU sanctions list.
The central enforcement office (ZfS) is still under construction. Currently, 36 employees work there. Die Welt writes that under the Sanctions Act, the ZfS must also maintain a register of frozen assets, which is published on the authorityʼs website. However, this has not happened yet.
- As of January 2023, Greece and Malta froze the fewest Russian assets among EU countries — €212,000 versus €147,000, respectively. At the time, 27 EU countries reported freezing nearly €20.3 billion in Russian assets, with Italy, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Austria, and Luxembourg reporting more than a billion euros in freezes.
- On January 19, 2023, it became known that the US Department of Justice plans to begin transferring part of the confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine through the State Department in the coming months.
- The EU found an opportunity to use frozen Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine. One of the conditions is that the main amount of assets and interest will be returned to Russia at some point. Such a proposal is controversial and is at a preliminary stage of discussion. European officials believe that such a step should be coordinated with the G7countries.