EU officials believe that the assets of Russian billionaires under sanctions are much larger than currently discovered, but they cannot be found and frozen, writes Bloomberg.
At the moment, the bloc has frozen Russian assets worth 20.9 billion euros. In October 2022, the EU reported a frozen 17.4 billion euros. Thus, in recent months, the increase has been insignificant. According to the latest data available to the agency, Belgium has become the leader among countries in terms of the number of frozen assets. At the same time, Greece and Malta showed “insignificant figures”: 212 thousand and 222.5 thousand euros, respectively.
At the same time, it follows from official statistics that in 2019 the volume of Russia’s foreign direct investment in the EU was estimated at 136 billion euros. Bloomberg notes that assets are often hidden behind complex company structures or intermediaries.
EU officials are concerned about the inability to develop an apparatus to enforce the sanctions regime. In their opinion, the process is significantly complicated by the lack of timely updates of information from the governments of the participating countries. In addition, the refusal to extend restrictions to family members and partners of sanctioned individuals who could potentially help protect or redistribute assets is also called a problem.
Source: Rosbalt
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
