The Kremlin may go to court when introducing a profit tax on Russian assets

The Kremlin does not rule out recourse to the courts if the European Union introduces a profit tax on frozen Russian assets, said Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.

“Here, from a legal point of view, of course, asset owners need to make their judgments in this regard. If any elements of disagreement or desire to challenge arise, then, of course, we will resort to the courts,” he clarified.

The day before, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in an interview with Bloomberg statedthat the US supports the EU plan to introduce a tax on profits received from frozen Russian assets. “This seems like a reasonable proposal. <…> This is a completely different matter than the seizure of assets,” she clarified. We are talking about a tax on unexpected expenses. The US is discussing this idea with the EU.

According to the agency’s source, the European Commission may officially propose this measure in the coming weeks. Yellen stressed that a complete withdrawal would be illegal, so the EU legal service came up with an alternative idea.

After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Western countries blocked 300 billion euros of reserves of the Central Bank of Russia and 19 billion euros of private funds of Russian businessmen, EC head Ursula von der Leyen said in November 2022. Since then, EU countries have been discussing various mechanisms for the confiscation and use of Russian assets, as well as their transfer to Ukraine. June 21 Bloomberg citing EU report reportedthat the union did not find legal grounds for the complete confiscation of the frozen assets of the Russian Federation. The Kremlin called the blocking of assets theft and promised to take retaliatory measures.