EU countries have frozen about 23 billion euros (24.5 billion dollars) of the assets of the Russian Central Bank – less than expected.
This was reported by Reuters with reference to EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders.
Earlier, Russia publicly stated that Western sanctions led to the freezing of about $300 billion of its central bank assets around the world.
Of these frozen assets, only less than a tenth is in the EU, according to information the European Commission has collected from 27 EU governments, the commissioner said.
He said that about 23 billion euros had been frozen in the EU since the start of the war in Ukraine in February, a figure less than the $100 billion frozen by the United States.
In addition, EU countries have also frozen about 10 billion euros of tangible assets such as yachts and villas associated with oligarchs and Kremlin-linked officials, Reinders said.
He did not explain why the world’s third-largest economy apparently has attracted so few assets from the Russian central bank.
He also declined to indicate whether all EU governments have reported asset freezes.
Many EU governments have traditionally been cautious about fully enforcing EU sanctions, and some have refused to speak publicly about whether Russian assets have been frozen.