Slow, careful, messy. The criticism of how (and how quickly) our country imposed sanctions against Russia was fierce. But according to the specially appointed ‘sanction czar’ Stef Blok, the Netherlands has not been sleeping.
The numbers aren’t going up much yet. Since the Russian invasion, the Netherlands has frozen 632 million euros in Russian money, Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) reported yesterday. That is ‘only’ 116 million more since the last report.
Is the image correct then that the Netherlands is too slow to implement sanctions and locks Russians are still running out of money unseen? No, says specially appointed former minister Stef Blok, who has been recruited to ‘streamline’ the sanctions policy, which is divided over numerous ministries.
Critics in the House of Representatives point out that other countries such as France (22 billion) and Italy (800 million) score higher. ‘Unacceptable’ and ’embarrassing’, part of the House of Representatives scoffed. But according to Blok, that image is not correct. Yes, the Netherlands has about 488 letterbox companies on the Zuidas with Russian owners. But: they are not necessarily in the hands of the roughly 1100 Russians on the sanction list. And it mainly concerns holdings, the factories, the money: everything is often located in other countries. Money may flow through the letterbox companies once or twice a year when dividends are paid to shareholders. And that hasn’t happened since the sanctions.
Blok’s interim conclusion to Hoekstra: The Netherlands has taken what it could take. Rich Russians from Putin’s circle simply had their country houses in Italy, France and England. Not in the Netherlands.
Hoekstra therefore dares to say in a letter to the House that ‘acted quickly’ and ‘properly’. And that there “appears to be no substantial unfrozen assets.” There are also ‘no indications’ that after the imposition of sanctions, ‘money was soon funneled away’.
A point of concern is that complicated business structures can hide who the real owners of companies are. Research into this is still ongoing, says Hoekstra.
The question remains: will Russia be affected by the current sanctions? The Russian economy is expected to shrink by 8.5 percent this year, according to the IMF. But at the same time, Russia still earns 800 million euros a day (!) from the sale of gas and oil to the EU. Plans to discontinue that are still wavering. Many Member States still have too few alternatives.
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