Diplomat Logvinov said that one day the EU will have to return frozen assets to Russia
Acting Russian Ambassador to the European Union (EU) Kirill Logvinov said that any form of seizure of Russian assets frozen in the West is contrary to international law, so sooner or later they will need to be returned. This is reported RIA News.
No matter how many meetings the European Union, the G7, no matter what form they try to invent for the seizure of Russian assets, any “thieves’ scheme” by definition contradicts generally accepted legal norms
The diplomat noted that the legal service of the EU Council, in fact, admitted that one day Russian state assets will have to be returned, possibly with interest.
In the event that they are lost for some reason, the EU will be forced to compensate Russia for the losses from the pockets of European taxpayers. True, the latter are hardly aware of this at all.
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Tenth package of sanctions
On February 25, the EU introduced the tenth package of anti-Russian sanctions due to a special operation in Ukraine, which included bans on the work of Russian media and new restrictions on Russian individuals and legal entities.
The restrictions affected 1,473 individuals and 205 organizations from Russia, including the banking sector, advanced technologies, and the private military company (PMC) Wagner. Their assets were frozen, and EU citizens and companies were banned from providing funds to them. In addition, individuals are prohibited from entering or transiting through the EU. As calculated by the European Commission, the EU imposed trade restrictions against Russia in the amount of 11.4 billion euros.
Among others, the sanctions list included the Russian Alfa-Bank, Tinkoff Bank and Rosbank, which, as they say in the EU, “provide significant income” to the Russian authorities.
In response, the Russian permanent mission in Vienna stated that Moscow would not leave the tenth package of EU sanctions unanswered. The anti-Russian measures themselves were considered illegitimate. In addition, diplomats expressed criticism in connection with the introduction of restrictions against Russian media – they allegedly violate international treaties.
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The fate of the frozen assets
In February, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said that the EU had already frozen 21.5 billion euros of Russian assets – they belonged to organizations and individuals from Russia. At the same time, this amount is not final, since the EU continues to work on the assets of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), sanctions against which Western states introduced at the end of February last year.
The head of the regulator, Elvira Nabiullina, stated that the total amount of Central Bank reserves frozen by Western countries amounted to about $300 billion. At the same time, according to Bloomberg, the EU does not know where the vast majority of the frozen assets of the Central Bank, namely 86 percent, are located. The agency noted that out of $258 billion, no more than $36.4 billion was located.
In January, the head of the EU Council, Charles Michel, during a meeting with Ukrainian representatives in Kyiv, promised that all frozen funds belonging to Russia would be used to rebuild Ukraine.
The damage must be compensated. We have frozen Russian assets worth 300 billion euros. I am sure that they should and will be used to restore Ukraine
There is no legal basis for simply confiscating Russian assets and sending them to Ukraine, although individual states continue to insist on this.
At the same time, Switzerland did not see any legal grounds for transferring Russia’s frozen assets to Ukraine. A working group led by the Federal Office of Justice (FJU) concluded that the confiscation of private Russian assets is not legal under current law. This measure, in particular, would be contrary to constitutional guarantees.” Anne-Clair Legendre, spokeswoman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke in a similar vein.
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Moscow’s position
Alexander Venediktov, deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, called the blocking of Russian reserves abroad a theft. According to the Deputy Secretary of the Security Council, “the organizers of this crime are the same people who previously assumed responsibility for maintaining the world economic architecture.”
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin also compared the freezing of Russian foreign exchange reserves by Western countries with theft. According to him, by imposing sanctions, the West tried to harm both the Russian financial sector and industry and the business community.
In turn, the press secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, announced Moscow’s intention to continue to defend its interests in the issue of unfreezing gold and foreign exchange reserves frozen by the West.
Considering that we are talking about an international act of theft, a violation of everything and everything, of all international rules and laws, then, of course, we will continue to defend our interests. hope dies last
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