Putin signed a decree in response to the seizure of Russian assets

2023-04-26 03:57:00

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree on Tuesday that provides for the provisional external management of foreign assets in his country in the event of the seizure of their own abroad. The document was published on the official legal information portal.

It’s about the foreign assets linked to “hostile” countries conducting or participating in activities that the Kremlin views as unfriendly, linked to sanctions imposed on it by Western countries after the military intervention in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.

The assets to which the measure could be imposed are divided into five categories: personal property; property; values; shares in the statutory (contributed) capital of Russian legal entities; and property rights.

Interim external management will be carried out by the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo).

The document mentions in its preamble that the signing of the decree is due to “the need for urgent action in the face of hostile and contrary to international law actions by the United States and by foreign states and international organizations that have joined them that aim to unlawfully deprive and (or) limit the property rights of the Russian Federation, of Russian natural and legal persons”.

Last February the European Union (EU) approved the creation of a special working group for the use of frozen Russian assets in the interests of Ukraine under the initiative of Sweden, which presides over the EU Council in the first six months of 2023.

The EU has expressed on more than one occasion the willingness to use Russian assets, including private ones, to rebuild Ukraine after the conflictbut at the moment Brussels does not have the necessary legislative mechanism to comply with this procedure.

The special working group will study the location of the assets frozen by the invasion of Ukraine and their price, as well as analyze the possibilities and expediency of their use, including legal, economic and political aspects.

For her part, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zajarova described the blockade of Russian assets in Europe as theft, the Sputnik news agency reported.

Numerous countries have condemned the Russian special military operation, as Putin calls it, which continues in Ukraine since February 24, 2022 and supports Kiev with arms supplies, donations, humanitarian aid and anti-Russian sanctions to raise the cost of the conflict for Moscow. .