The European Commission has confirmed that it developed legally acceptable options for using Russia’s assets, both private and state-owned, to rebuild Ukraine.
This was reported by Christian Wigand, Spokesperson for the European Commission, at a Thursday press briefing.
According to Wigand, around €24.1 billion in private assets belonging to Russian individuals and legal entities sanctioned by the European Union have been frozen on the territory of the bloc. These sanctions don't provide for the confiscation of the assets, as that would be against the law.
"We have come up with a proposal to criminalize the evasion of EU restrictive measures, which is well advanced in the discussions with the legislators. This would make it possible in the case of the evasion of sanctions to confiscate such assets in a way that is compatible with the rule of law, criminal law, in that context," the EC spokesperson explained.
As for state-owned assets of the Central Bank of Russia, they also cannot be simply confiscated, but the European Commission suggested a different way at the end of last year.
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