None of the Russians sanctioned by the European Union provided the German government with information about their assets, as required by national legislation on the implementation of sanctions restrictions. This is reported by REUTERS with reference to a letter from the State Secretary of the German Ministry of Economy Udo Philipp to the Bundestag deputy Christian Görke, which the agency managed to get acquainted with.
“None of the Russians who fell under EU sanctions filed asset declarations, which is required by law. In Germany, they are calling for a tightening of the transparency regime,” Reuters notes.
According to the current legislation, it is necessary to inform the authorities about the existing assets immediately after being included in the sanctions lists. For non-compliance with this requirement, punishment is provided: from fines to imprisonment for up to one year.
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According to the German authorities, after the imposition of sanctions since the end of February 2022, the assets of "Russian oligarchs" in the amount of €4.48 billion were frozen in the country, including financial assets in the amount of €2.3 billion in bank accounts.
"The German Central Bank, as well as the Federal Office for Economics and EXPORT Control, did not receive declarations," the agency quotes an excerpt from Philip's letter.
The agency also cites the words of Deputy Goerke, who believes that control over compliance with sanctions should be strengthened.
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See also German Finance Ministry warned against confiscation of assets of Russians for Ukraine 00:26
In mid-July, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders reported that the EU had frozen the assets of Russian billionaires, individuals and legal entities subject to sanctions, in the amount of €13.8 billion. Most of the frozen assets - over €12 billion - fell on five from 27 European countries, but Reinders did not specify which ones.
Russian assets were frozen as part of the imposition of several packages of sanctions and the tightening of previously existing restrictions in the spring of 2022. In RUSSIA, these measures are called illegal. According to Alexander Venediktov, deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, "the freezing of Russian assets is one of the greatest thefts in history."
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The Kremlin called the arrests of the assets of Russian businessmen a robbery: Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that Russian entrepreneurs were “robbed”, as if in the Wild West, while they honestly earned their money.
A number of Russian businessmen who fell under European sanctions challenged the imposition of restrictions in the EU COURT. Among them are Roman Abramovich, Pyotr Aven, Mikhail Fridman, Alexei Mordashov and Alisher Usmanov. As Friedman noted, Western countries, introducing restrictive measures, do not understand “how power actually works in Russia.” According to him, the distance between the Russian leadership and anyone else "is similar to the distance between the Earth and space."
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