EU Has Frozen 17B Euros From Russian “Oligarchs And Other Entities”

The European Union has frozen assets worth around 17 billion euros from Russian “oligarchs and other entities,” EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said in a Saturday interview.

The figure is roughly 3.2 billion euros higher than in July, when the EU had seized around 13.8 billion euros, primarily across five countries, the Sun Daily reports.

Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, say the funds should be used to rebuild their country after the Russian invasion.

Reynders said that if the frozen assets are “criminal money confiscated by the EU” that it could be transferred to a Ukraine compensation fund.

“This amount is far from being sufficient to finance reconstruction,” he added.

“So far, the assets of 90 people have been frozen, more than 17 billion euros in seven member states, including 2.2 billion euros in Germany,” Reynders told German media group Funke, including the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

The sums totalling 17.5 billion euros were chiefly frozen by Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Ireland and Italy, a spokeswoman for the European Commission told AFP, without giving further details.

Reynders noted that Western sanctions have also led to the “freezing of 300 billion euros” of Central Bank of Russia foreign exchange reserves around the world, saying this could be used as a guarantee. -Sun Daily

“From my point of view, it is at least possible to keep these 300 billion euros as a guarantee until Russia voluntarily participates in the reconstruction of Ukraine,” he said.