BRUSSELS, 29 Oct. (DPA/EP) –
The Commissioner for Justice of the European Union, Didier Reynders, has estimated that the block’s sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine have led to the paralysis of assets of Russian citizens worth 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 information conglomerate Grupo Funke.
The EU has so far adopted eight sanctions packages against Russia since the February 24 invasion, while Ukrainian politicians have since insisted that the “frozen” money be redirected to post-war reconstruction in Ukraine.
In this regard, Reynders has estimated that it is possible as long as it is proven that this money originates from criminal activities.
“In that case, it is possible to channel it to a compensation fund for Ukraine,” Reynders explained before clarifying that the paralyzed amount “is not even remotely enough to finance a national reconstruction process.”
Likewise, Reynders recalled that to this sum must be added the 300,000 million euros in foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Central Bank, an amount that “at least it is possible to keep paralyzed as a guarantee that Russia voluntarily agrees to participate in the process of reconstruction”.
