RTFri, 27 May 2022 10:32 UTC
© Martin Meissner/APChelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich
The West is considering removing Russian citizens from sanctions lists if they provide funds to rebuild Ukraine, the AP reported on Thursday, citing sources.
According to the report,
the idea was proposed by Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland at the G7 meeting in Germany last week.Freeland said a number of Russian businessmen that fell under Ukraine-related sanctions over the past two months approached her with this proposal. Their names have not been disclosed, but Freeland said she "has known some of them since working as a journalist in Moscow."
AP sources claim that Kiev is aware of the discussions and does not oppose the idea.
The EU is reportedly eager to discuss the proposal, as the bloc's laws do not normally allow for the confiscation of the frozen assets of Russians. Confiscation procedures may result in lengthy lawsuits with no clear prospect of winning.
According to a 2017 study from the US National Bureau of Economic Research, offshore assets belonging to Russians worth
roughly $800 billion are scattered across the UK, Switzerland, Cyprus and other offshore banking centers.
Russian citizens have been targeted by Western sanctions in response to Moscow's military operation in Ukraine. In Europe alone,
over 1,000 individuals have had their companies and assets frozen and their entry into the EU restricted.
Comment: The Scheme: How to destroy a country and use others to pay for it.
The European Union has frozen roughly €23 billion ($24.5 billion) worth of assets of the Russian Central Bank, Reuters reported, citing EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, who revealed the figure at a news conference on Wednesday.
The amount is much smaller than expected out of the reported $300 billion frozen by the US and its allies as part of Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia.
According to Reynders, some €10 billion ($10.68 billion) worth of physical assets linked to Russian businessmen and officials, their yachts and villas, for instance, were also arrested. The official did not mention whether all 27 EU member-states had reported the seizure of Russian assets and their amount.
This is the first time the EU has revealed the amount it froze in connection with the conflict in Ukraine.
Previously, Moscow confirmed that a total of about $300 billion of the central bank's assets had been seized globally, which is roughly half the Bank of Russia's overall reserves.
Of these funds, around $100 billion was reportedly frozen by the US, while other funds appear to be scattered in central banks across the globe.
The West to take a minute to mull it over:
European Union officials have talked about the need to look at different and new avenues of confiscating assets and providing money to Ukraine.
Western countries have imposed a raft of sanctions on oligarchs in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Many of their multi-billion-dollar fortunes are intertwined with the West, from investments in Silicon Valley startups to British Premier League soccer teams.
Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who was sanctioned over his links to Putin has said that net proceeds from the sale of the soccer team would be donated to victims of the war in Ukraine. A deal to sell the football club has dragged out as the British government makes sure that Abramovich does not profit from the enforced sale of the club. Chelsea has been operating under a government license that expires on May 31 since Abramovich's assets were frozen in March.
As much as $800 billion is held by wealthy Russians in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Cyprus and other offshore banking centers.
That vast fortune, held by a few hundred ultra-rich individuals, is roughly equal to the wealth of the rest of Russia's 144 million people.
Freeland, Canada's finance minister, is of Ukrainian heritage.
The saying goes: If you break it you fix it. To that the West says: "Sorry Ukraine, we gave for the breaking part."
Comment: The Scheme: How to destroy a country and use others to pay for it. The West to take a minute to mull it over: The saying goes: If you break it you fix it. To that the West says: "Sorry Ukraine, we gave for the breaking part."