Sanctions post mortem
In connection with the lifting of EU sanctions against Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Kommersant figured out the purposes and consequences of excluding a deceased person from the European black list. As it turned out, death can become the basis for lifting personal sanctions, but this does not always happen quickly and at the initiative of the EU itself, as in the case of a politician. At the same time, the unfreezing of the foreign assets of the deceased will not happen automatically either. His heirs will have to apply to every organization that takes into account the rights to assets in order to get to the property.
On September 15, the EU Council extended until March 15, 2023 sanctions against 1.2 thousand individuals and 108 legal entities from Russia. At the same time, the Council removed several people from the blacklist, including Vladimir Zhirinovsky, deceased April 6th. The politician was blacklisted by the EU on September 12, 2014 with the wording: “He actively supported the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. Actively called for the division of Ukraine. On behalf of the LDPR, which he heads, he signed an agreement with the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic". Sanctioned persons are banned from entering the EU, “all funds and economic resources belonging to them, in their possession or controlled… must be frozen.” The document also states that "no funds or economic resources" should be available to them, directly or indirectly.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky was one of the founders and permanent chairman of the LDPR, the first party officially registered in the spring of 1991 after the abolition of the sixth article of the USSR Constitution (on the leading and guiding role of the CPSU), and one of two (along with the Communist Party) Russian parties represented in all eight convocations of the State Duma since 1993.
The speeches of the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party on foreign policy topics, as a rule, were sharply anti-Western. He actively supported the annexation of Crimea and Donbass.
But at the historic meeting of the State Duma on February 15, 2022, when deputies accepted the appeal to the president with a call to recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR (which actually became the first step towards a special operation in Ukraine), did not take part, since he was already in the hospital in serious condition.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky's "political heir" was long considered his son Igor Lebedev (unofficially, the illegitimate children of Oleg Eidelstein and Anastasia Botsan-Kharchenko are also known), who was first elected to the State Duma in 1999 and remained a deputy until 2021, holding positions in the lower house, first as a leader faction of the Liberal Democratic Party, and then vice-speaker. But in June 2021, the deputy announced that he would not participate in the September Duma elections and would leave politics altogether, without providing details. Mr. Zhirinovsky said that his son "decided to go into business." Nothing is known about the foreign assets of the politician: he did not declare real estate, and financial assets and bank accounts are not included in the part of the declarations open for publication. But the deputies are prohibited from owning foreign assets (unlike real estate).
The reason for the lifting of sanctions, lawyers believe, was death itself. “This is a common ground for exclusion from the sanctions lists. Personal sanctions are directed against a specific person, and not against his property, and in the event of death, the very object of sanctions disappears,” explains Alexander Zablotskis, chairman of the A1 Bar Association.
However, EMPP lawyer Mergen Doraev clarifies that earlier there were cases of long-term presence of people on the EU sanctions lists even after death. If the EU Council had not lifted the sanctions itself, the lawyer adds, the heirs could themselves apply for such a decision in an administrative manner. Vladimir Zhirinovsky was also included in the sanctions lists of Canada, Australia and Switzerland - so far nothing is known about the lifting of these restrictions in connection with his death.
According to lawyers, there are two main goals for lifting sanctions on the deceased. Firstly, Ekaterina Orlova, head of legal practice at CM Grace Consulting, explains that this is a technical moment and “putting in order” the sanctions list: “The bans no longer apply to the deceased, but the regular sanctions compliance of namesakes is a very troublesome business, entailing costs and wasting working hours ".
Secondly, the freezing of the assets of the sanctioned entity makes any transactions with them impossible. This also applies to the transfer of ownership in the order of inheritance and the use of part of the property for the maintenance of these assets until the entry into the inheritance, adds Ekaterina Orlova.
“Since the heirs of Mr. Zhirinovsky, of whom there are quite a few (the politician has a number of grandchildren and nephews.— "b"), may not be of sanction interest for the European Union, its exclusion from the list makes it easier for them to inherit,” Ms. Orlova explains.
Mr. Zablotskis adds that the heirs will not need to obtain additional decisions from the regulator, since the sanctions have already been lifted from the testator, and the heirs have not been imposed.
However, not everything is so simple - the restrictions imposed on assets themselves are not removed. If the sanctioned person had frozen property in the EU, then the heirs will have to work to release it in each state where the assets were blocked, warns Mergen Doraev. “Each bank will make an individual decision based on a separate application,” the lawyer points out. “No automatic unfreezing can be expected, the compliance services of European banks have a lot of work without it.”
Private bussiness
Zhirinovsky Vladimir Volfovich
Born April 25, 1946 in Alma-Ata. In 1970 he graduated from the Institute of Oriental Languages with a degree in Turkey and the Turkish language, in 1977 he graduated from the law faculty of Moscow State University.
In 1970-1972 he served in the political department of the headquarters of the Transcaucasian Military District. Then he worked in the Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace, the Higher School of the Trade Union Movement, the Foreign Legal Collegium of the USSR Ministry of Justice. In 1990, he created and headed the Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union (since 1992 - LDPR).
Ran for president six times. The best results were shown in 1991 and 2008 - 7.81 and 9.35% respectively. Since 1993, he was regularly elected to the State Duma, from 2000 to 2011 - Vice Speaker.
On September 12, 2014, the European Union banned the entry of the politician and promised to freeze all accounts that it finds in the EU countries. When entering the list, officials made a mistake in the surname, date and place of birth. As a result, sanctions have been in effect since November 2014. In February 2022, Vladimir Zhirinovsky was hospitalized with covid, did not vote for the recognition of the sovereignty of the DPR and LPR, and did not fall under new EU sanctions. He was included in the sanctions lists of Canada, Australia and Switzerland.
From 1998 to 2020, Vladimir Zhirinovsky declared apartments in Moscow and the Tula region, residential buildings in the Moscow and Tver regions, accounts with Stroysevzapbank, Sberbank and VTB. For 2020, the politician declared an income of 39 million rubles.
Passed away April 6, 2022.