Western countries are considering the idea of giving Russian businessmen the opportunity to “buy off” sanctions in exchange for their money being used to rebuild Ukraine, the Associated Press reported on May 26, citing a source.
It is noted that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland proposed this idea at a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Germany last week.
At the same time, according to the source, the Ukrainian side was aware of such discussions.
“We wouldn’t talk about it if there was no agreement on the part of the Ukrainians,” the source said.
He added that this proposal appeared against the backdrop of discussions of additional assistance to the Ukrainian side.
On May 25, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the country’s opposition to support the confiscation of Russian property. In his opinion, freezing the property of Russian oligarchs on Polish territory is not enough.
On May 11, within the framework of EU sanctions in Finland, two properties of the editor-in-chief of Moskovsky Komsomolets, Pavel Gusev, were arrested.
At the end of March, it became known that property was confiscated in Italy from Russians who fell under European sanctions in the amount of €900 million.
The fact that the EU authorities are studying whether it is possible to use the property of Russian citizens that fell under sanctions to finance the restoration of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported citing three sources on March 18. It was about the assets of Russian businessmen and officials, it was noted that the final decision on this issue has not yet been made.
At the same time, on March 16, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the actions of a number of countries against Russian entrepreneurs had become gangsterism at the state level. According to him, this clearly demonstrates the collapse of the sanctity of private property, as well as the dangers of doing business there.
The British Foreign Office on March 15 announced new sanctions against Russia. First of all, the restrictions are introduced in order to damage “the oligarchs and other members of the elite who became rich during the years of President Putin.”
On March 10, the press service of the Verkhovna Rada reported that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on the principles for the forced seizure of property of the Russian Federation and its residents on the territory of Ukraine. The relevant law was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on March 3.
Western sanctions against Russia and its citizens began to be introduced after on February 24, the Russian military, on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, launched a special operation to protect the civilian population of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR). As explained in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, all strikes are targeted at the military structure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), nothing threatens the civilian population.
In mid-February, due to the aggravation of the situation in the Donbass as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian military, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics announced the evacuation of the civilian population to the Russian Federation and asked for recognition of independence. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a corresponding decree.