The West has robbed entrepreneurs from Russia, but they must fight for their rights – Kommersant

Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov considers it right to fight Russian investors for their assets, which were frozen abroad. According to him, Western countries violated property rights and “robbed” investors from Russia. So he answered Kommersant’s question about the advisability of a class action lawsuit by Russian businessmen demanding compensation for the damage caused to them after the assets were frozen.

“Naturally, our entrepreneurs, and the state itself, were all robbed in the West in various formats. Naturally, they are trying to come up with some ways to fight for their interests in order to return the blocked, confiscated, but belonging to them assets from abroad. This is a difficult and long road: Western countries have violated all the rules and principles and encroached on property rights,” said Mr. Peskov during a press call.

Dmitry Peskov noted that Russian investors are very limited in their right to appeal to European courts. Only some businessmen managed to achieve a court decision in their favor, he pointed out. “Naturally, all these efforts are justified and understandable, and they need to be continued. As for this option, it is not entirely correct for the administration to comment on the forecast for effectiveness and efficiency. Let’s leave it to the specialists, but we must fight for our rights unambiguously,” he concluded.

Euroclear and Clearstream froze Russian assets due to sanctions in 2022. In December, the National Settlement Depository (NSD) received permission to release foreign assets from the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance and the Belgian Treasury. In May 2023, the head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, said that investors returned assets from abroad for about 3 trillion rubles.

On June 7, Alexander Nektorov, a partner at NSP law firm, reported Forbesthat his firm is preparing a class-action lawsuit in a Russian court to unlock the frozen Clearstream and Euroclear assets. The publication noted that the assets of European depositories frozen in Russia could become an argument in the struggle of Russian investors for their property.

According to the reports of Euroclear and Deutsche Borse Group (which includes the Clearstream depository), the total volume of assets blocked in Russia by Euroclear and Clearstream is €2.9 billion. The blocking occurred in response to the restrictions that the depositories imposed on NSD, implementing European sanctions after the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

Milena Kostereva