Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday allowing the exchange of foreign assets frozen in Russia for Russian funds held in the West as a result of the war in Ukraine.
The decree, published on the official digital legal information page, includes “additional temporary economic measures related to the circulation of foreign values”.
The initial price of foreign valuables expropriated in accordance with this decree and owned by a single citizen may not exceed 100,000 rubles (approximately 934 euros).
At the same time, it states that transactions falling within the scope of the exchange mechanism provided for in the decision will be concluded through bids.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who valued the money of 3.5 million Russians frozen in the West at 1.5 billion rubles (15,240 million euros), assured that Moscow plans to first release the assets of Russian minority investors.
G7 foreign ministers on Wednesday reaffirmed their support for Kiev’s decision to continue with “tough” sanctions on Moscow and involve the private sector in Ukraine’s economic recovery.
The final statement stated that Russian state assets “will remain immobilized until the damages caused to Ukraine are paid.”
Recently, the president of the State Duma, Russia’s parliament, warned that his country will confiscate “many more assets” from enemy countries if the European Union (EU) channels the benefits of frozen Russian assets into rebuilding Ukraine.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, indicated at the end of October “a proposal to find a way to use the inflows from these assets that currently benefit a limited number of financial institutions in the European Union” .
Russian authorities have already described the United States’ decision to allocate $5.4 million (5.04 million euros) in frozen assets to Russian oligarchs to support Ukrainian veterans as “theft.”
The EU froze around 19 billion euros to Russian oligarchs in the first months of the military campaign that Russia launched in Ukraine in February 2022.
At the same time, the West blocked a total of 300 billion dollars (280 billion euros) in gold and foreign exchange reserves from the Central Bank of Russia.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the worst security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Ukraine’s Western allies have supplied weapons to Kiev and approved successive sanctions packages against Russian interests to try to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance the war effort.
Source: DN
