Greece and Malta are lagging behind other European Union countries in freezing Russian assets under sanctions imposed over Moscow’s war on Ukraine, an EU official and an internal document said, as the European bloc considers using the assets to help Kiev, Reuters reports.

So far, 27 EU countries have reported freezing Russian assets worth around €20.3 billion, with Italy, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria freezing more than €1 billion each.

Almost every other EU country has frozen assets worth millions of euros, according to an executive document from the European Commission seen by Reuters.

Greece and Malta defended their work on sanctions. Greece confirmed it had notified the bloc of an asset freeze of €212,000, while Malta said it had frozen €147,000.

“It’s a bit strange,” said an EU official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Either they have nothing to do or they are not doing their job. Or they did something, but did not communicate with us, although they had the opportunity.”

A Greek official said the €212,000 had exhausted all assets identified by Athens on the EU sanctions list.

“The investment environment in Greece does not favor the inflow of Russian capital and offshore companies,” the official added.

A spokesperson for the Maltese government also confirmed the figure and added: “Assets have been frozen or sold based on court orders and revenues have been frozen due to Malta’s cooperation with other European jurisdictions.”

He said Malta had also provided information to help freeze assets elsewhere. He declined to say whether Malta would freeze additional assets under existing sanctions.

More than 10 months after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the EU currently has around 1,300 people and 120 entities on its blacklist and has imposed economic sanctions that include trade, transport, energy, banking, media and defence.

What we know about the freezing of Russian assets by Romania

In Romania, we know that ANAF blocked in March 2022 the accounts of three companies TMK Artrom, TMK Assets and TMK Europe GMBH, controlled indirectly through the company TMK Steel Holding United, a natural person on the list of sanctions imposed at the European level. Union.

Although the Treasury did not provide details, it would be Dmytro Oleksandrovych Pumpianskyi.

Thus, the tax authority froze “all funds and economic resources that belong to, are in the ownership or possession of or are controlled by any natural or legal person, organization or body, or related natural or legal persons, organizations or bodies. .

Also last year, ANAF blocked the funds of the Russian airline Aeroflot, indirectly controlled by Vitaly Hennadiyovich Saveliev, Mikhail Igorovich Poluboyarynov and Sergey Viktorovich Chemezov. In this case, it is a representation.

However, we don’t know how much Romania actually froze.