BRUSSELS, April 10. /TASS/. Belgian authorities have reviewed three hundred applications for release of Russian assets from about a thousand ones presented, head of the Belgian Treasury Alexander De Geest said in an interview with Le Soir newspaper.
"One of main tasks of the financial sanctions application team in our administration is to review applications for assets release. More than a thousand applications were submitted. Considering limited resources of the team (eight persons) and a huge scope of required examinations, only three hundred of them have been processed for the time being. These applications originate from persons and entities believing that sanctions should not apply to them. For example, clients of Russian banks that in their turn were clients of the National Settlement Depository of Russia [under EU sanctions - TASS], and whose assets were frozen as a result," De Geest said.
Clients should prove for the release of assets that they are not under sanctions, do not act in interests of persons under sanctions and will not return money to Russia, the official said. "We do not release funds if we have the tiniest doubts," he noted.
Refusals were challenged in court in less than five cases, De Geest informed. In particular, the Bank of St. Petersburg achieved the release of $110 mln frozen with Euroclear depository.
In total, 250.6 bln euro of Russian assets are frozen in Euroclear, the official said. They were reinvested and Euroclear received the revenue of 821 mln euro from them, with 625 mln euro transferred to the Belgian government as a windfall tax.