The Justice Commissioner of the European Union (EU), Didier Reynders, estimated that the block’s sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine led to the paralysis of the assets of Russian citizens for more than 17,000 million euros.
“We are talking about the assets of some 90 people, more than 17,000 million euros blocked in seven member states, including some 2,200 million in Germany,” explained the Belgian commissioner in statements to the media of the German media group Funky.
The EU has adopted eight sanctions packages against Russia since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, while Ukrainian politicians insist that “frozen” money should be redirected towards Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.
In this regard, the commissioner considered that redirection is possible, as long as it is proven that the money comes from criminal activities.
“In that case, it is possible to channel it to a compensation fund for Ukraine,” Reynders explained, before clarifying that the blocked amount “is not remotely enough to finance a national reconstruction process.”
Likewise, Didier Reynders recalled that to this amount must be added the 300,000 million euros of foreign currency reserves of the Russian central bank, an amount that “at least it is possible to keep blocked as a guarantee that Russia voluntarily commits to participate in the reconstruction” . process”.
Source: TSF
