Boats, helicopters, art: Europe freezes $30 billion in Russian oligarchs’ assets

European Union governments have frozen around 30 billion euros in assets linked to oligarchs and other sanctioned people with ties to the Kremlin, the European Commission said on Friday.

Among the assets are bank accounts, boats, helicopters, real estate and works of art, according to the Commission, the EU’s executive body.

In addition, around 196 billion euros ($213.5 billion) of transactions were blocked, he added.

However, the Commission did not have estimates for the total value of oligarchs’ assets in the European Union.

The volume of frozen assets may also represent only a small portion of the assets believed to be owned by people sanctioned by the bloc after Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine. The Netherlands alone estimates that around €27 billion in assets in the country and jurisdictions linked to it belonged to blacklisted oligarchs.

Wealthy individuals can use hoards or anonymous shell companies and trust funds to hide their assets, which makes it very difficult to identify them, EU officials and diplomats said, especially in jurisdictions with lax rules on beneficial ownership of companies.

The Commission also said that only about half of the 27 EU countries so far have reported steps taken to freeze assets despite a legal obligation to do so. It did not list the countries that shared information.

In March, Reuters reported that several member states were reluctant to publicly share asset data.

“Improving sanctions is not enough”, says European Union

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders called on “all Member States to take all necessary measures to implement the sanctions, and those that have not already done so, to inform the Commission without delay”.

“Adopting sanctions is not enough. It is also important to put them into practice and monitor our progress,” he said in a statement.

The EU approved a fifth package of sanctions against Russia on Thursday, which includes an embargo on Russian coal and the closure of European ports to Russian ships.

This new sanctions package extends the negative list that affects “oligarchs” and political leaders from Russia, Belarus and the pro-Russian breakaway republics of Lugansk and Donetsk.

The individuals and entities on this list cannot enter the EU and their assets have been frozen.

Finance, trade and energy are the most affected sectors

Hundreds of Russian personalities are under sanction, including the two daughters of President Vladimir Putin, who are on the “black list” of the United States, the EU and the United Kingdom.

On Thursday (7), the EU expanded its list to 18 entities and more than 200 people, who are subject to a blocking of their assets and a ban on entry into European territory.

The sanctions adopted against Russia for the war in Ukraine, however, go far beyond blocking the assets of people close to Putin. They range from the closure of airspace to the exclusion of Moscow from the international financial system, in addition to several embargoes on hydrocarbon imports.

The financial sector was hardest hit by Western countries and their allies to limit the ability to finance the war. The United States, the European Union and other allied countries have banned any transactions with the Russian Central Bank and froze assets in foreign currencies.

Another major blow was the exclusion of the main Russian banks from the Swift international banking system, an essential mechanism for international finance that allows for fast and secure communication and transactions.

In the energy sector, the US announced an embargo on Russian oil and gas imports that, according to US President Joe Biden, was decided “in coordination” with its allies.

Last Thursday (7), the European Union, which includes countries very dependent on Russia in terms of energy, decided to impose an embargo on Russian coal from August, which is equivalent to 45% of imports of this ore.

The bloc had already planned to reduce its Russian gas imports by more than 60% by the end of the year and established a ban on new investments in this sector, essential for the Russian economy.

In transport, the aeronautical industry is the most affected with the ban on the export of planes, replacement parts or equipment and the suspension of maintenance of equipment registered in Russia of the giants Airbus and Boeing.

The airspace of NATO and EU members has already been closed to Russian planes and several airlines have suspended their flights to Russia.

In the commercial sphere, the US$ ban on the export of semiconductors and high-tech equipment was the first phase, imposed at the beginning of the invasion, by Japan, which is one of the main producers.

Then the US joined this strategy and, on Thursday (7), the EU adopted a ban on exports to Russia, especially of essential goods for the industry.

The list of Russian imports banned by EU countries has been expanded to include some “critical raw materials and materials” for an estimated value of €5.5 billion ($6 billion) a year.