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Anti-Russian sanctions

EU won’t transfer income from frozen assets to Russia even after sanctions are lifted

According to the document, "the rules protecting sovereign assets are not applicable to these revenues"

© AP Photo/ Francisco Seco

BRUSSELS, May 22. /TASS/. The European Union does not intend to transfer income from frozen Russian sovereign assets even after the sanctions against Russia are lifted, according to the EU Council resolution published in the Official Journal of the EU.

"Unexpected and extraordinary revenues (accumulated due to the EU ban on financial transaction with Russia - TASS) do not have to be made available to the Central Bank of Russia under applicable rules, even after the discontinuation of the transaction prohibition. Thus, they do not constitute sovereign assets. Therefore, the rules protecting sovereign assets are not applicable to these revenues," as stated in the resolution on the expropriation of income from the reinvestment of Russian assets to finance arms supplies to Kiev.

Earlier, experts in the banking sector repeatedly explained the complete inconsistency of Brussels’ logic, which, in fact, is equivalent to the statement that income from a bank deposit does not belong to its owner.

Theft as a tool of European politics

Earlier, the Council of the EU adopted a resolution obliging all financial institutions of the European Union, in which more than 1 million euros of Russian assets are frozen, to start biannual transfers of income from their reinvestment to the European Commission (EC), which will then direct 90% of these funds to weapons for Kiev, and 10 % - for economic assistance programs to Ukraine. Thanks to such transfers the EC expects to collect 2.5-3 billion euros per year. The first transfer is scheduled for July 2024. The EU currently has about 210 billion euros of sovereign Russian assets frozen.

Russia's permanent representative to the EU, Kirill Logvinov, said in comments to the media that the European Union "sooner or later will have to give back" to Russia what was stolen. He stressed that by its decision, the EU Council "officially elevated theft to the rank of instruments of its foreign policy." According to him, "the consequences of the created precedent will definitely be unpredictable, including for the eurozone, the economies of the bloc’s member countries, and the investment climate."

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