Estonia insists that the European Union confiscate more than 150 billion euros of frozen Russian assets by the end of the year. As Chancellor of the Estonian Foreign Ministry Yonatan Vseviov, quoted by Bloomberg, said, it is better to do this before the US presidential elections.
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“It is imperative that assets are confiscated before the end of the year or, if possible, before the US elections. If we wait too long, it may be too late,” says Vseviov.
The EU and G7 countries froze more than 250 billion euros of assets of the Russian Central Bank after the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The majority of assets are held in Europe on the Euroclear clearing facility in Belgium. Here they brought in about 4.4 billion euros in profit in 2023.
Estonia is already working on its own legislation, under which the country's authorities will ultimately be able to confiscate any Russian assets frozen in the country.
Recall
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance wrote that on February 12, the European Union announced how it would apply restrictive measures in relation to the Russian Central Bank.
“In particular, the European Council decided that the central Depositories holding assets of the Central Bank of Russia amounting to more than 1 million euros ($1.1 million) must separately take into account emergency cash balances accumulating in connection with EU restrictive measures and separately store the corresponding income,” the message says.
