Finland freezes €187 million worth of Russian assets

The Finnish Foreign Ministry has reported that €187 million worth of Russian assets has been frozen in the country due to sanctions imposed because of the Ukraine War, Yle reports.

“Those are real estate, shares, cars, yachts, aircraft: all sorts of valuable things,” Pia Saarivaara, a Foreign Ministry representative, says.

In early January, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said that the country was going to be the first to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. According to him, the EU countries instructed the European Commission to develop a legal scheme that would allow the frozen assets of Russian businessmen to be sent to help Ukraine, but no consensus has yet been reached.

In November, Politico reported that the EU had frozen a total of €68 billion worth of Russian assets. Most of the assets are located in Belgium, roughly €50 billion, and about €5.5 billion in Luxembourg.It was revealed in late December that Belgium and Luxembourg had allowed the unblocking of Russian assets that fell under EU sanctions. The ministries of finance of the countries issued a licence to the Russian National Settlement Depository, which allows it to conduct operations with the frozen funds.