Italy freezes 2 billion euros of Russian assets

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting “De Presse” newspaper, since the beginning of the Ukraine war, several EU countries have frozen Russian assets. Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy and Austria were particularly active in this field.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, oligarch assets Russian funds amounting to two billion euros have been blocked in Italy. This figure was obtained based on the balance sheet of 17 months of activity of the Italian tax police (Guardia di Finanza). The report shows that assets – buildings, luxury cars and yachts, aircraft, land, artwork and company shares – have been frozen for a total of 29 people in the country.

After the start of the Ukraine war, EU member states were asked to track and freeze Russian assets such as accounts and real estate. Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy and Austria especially worked in this field. Use of seized Russian assets to help Ukraine reached agreement the West to provide to Ukraine in the form of loans and financial aid for 2025. The world is closed, most of them are in the European Union. The annual profit from these sources of financing is 2.5 to 3.5 billion euros, which the EU says it does not contractually owe to Russia.

The idea supported by the United States is of this profit as a fixed income stream to provide a large loan of 50 billion dollars. Russia says any diversion of profits from its frozen funds amounts to theft.

The director of the European Department of the International Monetary Fund recently warned that any move to confiscate the bloc’s assets Russia should be done with the support of the law to avoid the risk of weakening the global financial system.

The European Union and other G7 countries have about 300 billion dollars of the assets of the Russian Central Bank. have been blocked since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.

Of this amount, 196.6 billion euros ($211 billion) are held by the Belgium-based clearing house Euroclear. Is. Since last year, these funds have generated nearly 4.4 billion euros in profits.

The International Monetary Fund has previously warned that Western plans to seize frozen Russian assets It can be a threat to the global monetary system and entail unpredictable risks.

Also, according to official statistics published in Italy, assets worth 3.6 billion euros are attributed. For organized crimes from January 1, 2023 to May 31 of this year in Italy, seized, confiscated or placed under judicial management. In the field of combating money laundering, authorities reported illegal transactions worth 6.8 billion euros and 5,316 people, of which 461 people were arrested.

Also combating new forms Remote fraud led to the seizure of assets worth 92 million euros in the country. The equivalent value of seized digital currencies is 75 million euros.

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