Europe: The European Commission said on Friday, April 8, that EU nations had frozen around 30 billion euros ($32.6 billion) of assets linked to Russian oligarchs and other sanctioned individuals with links to the Kremlin.
According to the EU’s executive body, the assets, totalling 29.5 billion euros since the beginning of Russia’s Ukraine invasion, includes bank accounts, vessels, choppers, real estate and artwork.
Additionally, it added that about 196 billion euros of transactions had been blocked.
On the other hand, the Commission has no estimate of the entire worth of oligarchs’ holdings in the European Union.
The frozen assets may only account for a minor share of assets believed to be owned by individuals sanctioned by the EU following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The Netherlands alone has assessed that banned oligarchs own almost 27 billion euros in assets in the nation, and jurisdictions related to it belonged to blacklisted oligarchs.
According to EU officials and diplomats, wealthy people may conceal their assets through front men, anonymous shell companies, and trusts, making it impossible to identify them, particularly in jurisdictions with permissive laws on who is the company’s beneficial owner.
Moreover, the Commission also stated that only around half of the 27 EU nations had reported measures they had taken to freeze assets, despite a legal obligation to do so. It didn’t list the nations that had disclosed information.
According to the news agency, several member states had been reluctant to share data on assets in March publicly.
Moscow refers to it as an offensive “special military operation” aimed at demilitarizing and “denazifying” its neighbours. According to Ukraine and its Western backers, that is an excuse for an aggressive attack.
The EU has sanctioned approximately 700 persons related to the Kremlin since the invasion of Ukraine, including many super-rich oligarchs and businesses.. According to reports, another 200 people are to be added to the list on Friday.
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