Belgium freezes more than 50 billion euros in Russian funds – the country is blocking a much larger amount of money and other financial assets belonging to sanctioned Russians and companies than has just become known.

1 comment

1. >
   >
   > In Belgium, 50.5 billion euros in funds belonging to people, companies and other legal entities against which financial sanctions have been imposed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine have been frozen. That is a considerably higher amount than was previously known. The last time our country published figures on this, in April, it was 3.5 billion euros or almost 15 times less. This confirms Francis Adyns, the spokesman for the federal public service Finance, with whom the Treasury monitors the correct application of the sanctions in our country.
   >
   > The EUR 50.5 billion in frozen funds include all kinds of financial assets such as cash and stocks, which are located in our country and which are owned by the 1,229 individuals and 110 other entities – such as Russian politicians, oligarchs, banks and corporations – who have imposed financial sanctions. were imposed. Some have been sanctioned since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, but most were introduced after the invasion of Ukraine in February.
   > ” As an important international financial hub, our country has already blocked 217.1 billion euros in transactions that have been banned since the war in Ukraine. ”
   >
   > The Treasury spokesman declined to clarify which sanctioned individuals or companies have had the largest amounts frozen. Adyns: ‘All we can say about that is
   > that in the latest wave of sanctions we have found names whose assets have been frozen in large amounts.’

   > According to Adyns, these are names that have been added to the sixth and seventh sanctions package.
   >
   > After the invasion of Ukraine, the sanctions list quickly included the names of Russian President Vladimir Putin, his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, all 336 members of the Russian Duma and numerous senior military personnel, as well as oligarchs and business leaders from Putin. entourage. The latest sanction packages have added several banks to the list, such as Sberbank, the largest Russian bank, and VTB Bank, one of the largest banks in Russia with the state as the largest shareholder. In addition to high-ranking Russian military officers, those packages also included the names of wives of targeted Russian oligarchs and companies associated with the Russian army and the military sector.
   >
   > The more than 50 billion euros that Belgium has frozen is a surprisingly high amount. Three weeks ago, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders announced that at that time EUR 13.8 billion in assets had been frozen across the European Union. Reynders then indicated that more than 12 billion had been frozen by five member states, without specifying which countries they were. But in our country the amount is now significantly higher.
   >
   > In addition, as an important international financial hub, our country, with institutions such as the securities giant Euroclear in Brussels, has blocked 217.1 billion euros in transactions that have been banned since the war in Ukraine.
   > ** luxury yachts**
   >
   > In addition to the freezing measures, the financial sanctions can also consist of a ban on investing in certain sectors, granting loans or insurance or financing the import or export of certain goods. The financial sanctions must be observed by everyone in Belgium as soon as they are published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
   >
   > The administrative processing of these financial sanctions in our country is a competence of the General Administration of the Treasury, which is part of the federal public service Finance. The Treasury must answer all questions about the financial sanctions, clear cases of similarities, deal with requests to release frozen assets and ensure that the financial sanctions are complied with in our country. The fate of the Antwerp fertilizer factory EuroChem, for example, fell entirely into the hands of the Treasury, after the Russian EuroChem Group founder Andrei Melnichenko was placed on the European sanction list in March.
   >
   > Spectacular ‘catches’ of luxury yachts and spacious domains belonging to oligarchs closely related to Putin have already taken place in other European countries. In recent months, De Tijd has been involved in the international Russian Asset Tracker project, in which investigative journalists are also investigating the European assets of Putin’s accomplices . The spokesman for Finance says that no real estate has yet been targeted in our country under the financial sanctions.
   >