To put Russia under pressure and try to force it to stop its invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has decided to strike at the wallet.
Among the sanctions adopted last week by the Twenty-Seven is indeed the freezing of assets held in Europe by Russian personalities.
In total, 488 people and entities were targeted, to which were added Sunday 26 additional oligarchs and a Russian entity, specifies Bercy.
The biggest names on this list are Vladimir Putin himself, as well as his head of diplomacy Sergei Lavrov.
There are also some 350 Russian deputies of the Duma (the lower house of the Russian Assembly), oligarchs, as well as senior officers, all close to the Kremlin.
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Concretely, the freezing of assets results, for the targeted personalities, in the immobilization of all their funds and financial assets held or controlled in the EU.
"
The person will no longer have any access to their bank account (nor to that of the company they control, for example), will no longer be able to pay or receive payment, buy securities on the stock market, credit their life insurance, use their checkbook, etc.
“, lists the Ministry of the Economy.
If French banks risk carrying out these operations, they are exposed to “
significant fines
”.
Moreover, EU-sanctioned Russians can no longer profit from their amassed economic resources in France.
“
These are mainly real estate, boats (yachts/cargoes), luxury vehicles, etc.
“, indicates Bercy.
They can still use them as they wish, but find themselves unable to sell or rent them out.
In the case of yachts, these cannot leave French or European territorial waters either.
Envisaged seizures
If the targeted personalities can still benefit from their assets, it is because these asset freezing measures do not correspond to seizures or confiscations.
"
When the measure ceases, the individual regains the use of his funds or his frozen goods and resources
", explains Bercy.
But the government does not rule out going as far as seizures.
“
We will equip ourselves with the legal means to seize all of these assets
,” Bruno Le Maire declared on Monday after a new defense council.
Seizing frozen property indeed requires legal adaptations, says Bercy.
The executive is also continuing "
the complete inventory of financial assets, real estate, yachts, luxury vehicles, which would belong to Russian personalities under European sanctions
", indicated the tenant of Bercy, adding that the list of personalities sanctioned Russians could still lengthen.
"
We are going to identify all Russian personalities with assets in France who could be added to the list of European sanctions because of their proximity to Russian power
," said Bruno Le Maire.
Read alsoFrance is preparing to freeze more Russian assets, says Le Maire
In addition, the Russian central bank is also affected by the freezing of its assets abroad.
"
This represents very significant sums, in the tens of billions of euros
," said the Minister of the Economy.
According to the latest public figures from the central bank of Moscow, 95 billion dollars were on deposit in January with foreign banking and monetary institutions, out of the 630 billion dollars of total reserves it held.
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