The European Commission’s proposal to use frozen Russian funds in favor of Ukraine as sanctions for starting a war against this country will not be published before September, an EU spokesman said on Thursday, quoted by Reuters.

Russian rublesPhoto: Hossein Lohinejadian / Alamy / Profimedia Images

A proposal in this sense was initially expected in August, according to Reuters and Agerpres. Following the sanctions introduced against Russia after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the assets of Russian oligarchs in the amount of almost 19 billion euros were frozen in the EU, and the states of the bloc of the community, together with the G7 countries, blocked Russia’s access to about 300 billion euros. dollars of its foreign currency or gold reserves, Moscow called the move “theft”. From this amount, the EU froze the assets of the Russian Central Bank in the amount of about 200 billion euros, and most of this amount is located in Belgium.

Currently, the European Commission is looking for a legal basis for using interest from these Russian assets to partially finance aid to Ukraine. The decision must be legally sound enough to withstand legal action. Actually, similar lawsuits have already been initiated, for example, initiated in Belgium by the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich together with the Russian asset management company First AM, who demand two billion dollars from the clearing house Euroclear for their clients.

The quoted spokesman also said that the EU is working on an agreement with the G7 countries on how they intend to proceed with the use of frozen Russian assets, a joint statement on this is expected by the end of July, and then, by September, the EU will develop its legal decision .

Extended sanctions

On the other hand, the Council of the EU on Thursday approved the extension for another six months, until January 31, 2024, of a series of sanctions introduced against Russia first after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and supplemented by other successive packages of sanctions after the Russian army attacked Ukraine last year.

New sanctions against Iran were also adopted in an attempt to limit the country’s ability to provide military support to Russia, measures aimed at banning the export of components that can be used in the production of drones.

Also on Thursday, the EU imposed sanctions against 18 individuals and 5 organizations for human rights violations in Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Russia and Ukraine.

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