The flag of the Russian Federation flies above the headquarters of the Russian central bank, also known as Bank Rossii, in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, March 18, 2016. Russia's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a fifth meeting amid risks to inflation, warning that its "moderately tight" monetary policy may last longer than previously planned. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
This was reported by Bloomberg.
The publication notes that this underscores the importance of discussions on how to use these funds to rebuild Ukraine.
The EU countries reported new data on blocked assets after the 10th package of sanctions, which forced banks to disclose information about the size of their assets.
“The EU is committed to ensure that Russia pays for the damages caused in Ukraine. That’s why the EU is exploring ways of using Russian frozen and immobilized assets for that purpose”, said European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand, who confirmed the figures.
The EU has also frozen 24.1 billion euros of Russian private assets of individuals and legal entities that have been sanctioned. The bloc has sanctioned nearly 1,500 individuals, restricted the export of hundreds of goods and technologies, and targeted many of Moscow’s key sources of revenue, but has had difficulty finding and freezing the assets of sanctioned Russian billionaires.
It is worth noting that on May 11, the European Commission confirmed that it had developed legally acceptable options for using Russian assets, both private and state-owned, to rebuild Ukraine.
According to Wigand, the Commission is working closely with the Swedish EU presidency to “push forward discussions” on how to use the frozen assets of the Russian central bank.
The EU is also continuing discussions with its allies “to ensure the necessary coordination at the international level”. EU leaders are expected to discuss this at their next meeting in June.
Separately, the EU is considering the power to confiscate the private assets of sanctioned Russians in case of a criminal offense, expanding the list of crimes such as money laundering and corruption to include evasion of EU sanctions.
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