Yle: Russian assets worth 187 million euros frozen in Finland

Finland froze Russian assets worth 187 million euros as part of EU sanctions, which included more than 1,300 Russian citizens, informs Yle.

Freezing assets in the country is handled by the debt collection department.

“These are real estate, stocks, cars, yachts, airplanes. A variety of valuable property,” said Pia Saarivaara, head of the Sanctions Department of the Finnish Foreign Ministry.

The most famous Russian businessman in the republic who fell under the restrictions is Gennady Timchenko, writes Yle. The entrepreneur is one of the owners of the Helsinki-halli arena in the capital.

In November 2022, the Finnish Ministry of Defense announced that it was considering additional restrictions on real estate transactions made by Russians, including a complete ban on them. According to the department, a specially created research group, which will work until February 28, 2023, will consider the need for restrictions.

On October 18, Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen said that the Finnish authorities, if necessary, can confiscate property from Russian citizens if it is located in areas critical to the country’s security. Kaikkonen said that in the coming weeks he will submit a proposal to Parliament to tighten the legislation regarding real estate transactions if buyers are not EU citizens. Then the development director of Astons in Russia and the CIS Igor Nemtsov spokethat the owners of assets in the EU are now striving to transfer them to more “safe” and “predictable” jurisdictions, and the Finnish proposal is directed against the Russians.

Previously, the Finnish authorities have already carried out the confiscation of the property of Russians. According to the MTV Uutiset TV channel, we are talking about the arrest of assets worth about 189 million euros. In particular, shares, bank deposits, as well as industrial raw materials, transport, real estate, etc. were confiscated from Russians.

At the end of November, the European Commission (EC) suggested create a special fund to help Kyiv, which will include funds from the frozen 300 billion euros of Russian reserves and 19 billion euros of private individuals’ assets. “In the short term, we could create a structure with our partners to manage these funds, invest them, and then use the proceeds for Ukraine. Then, when the sanctions are lifted, these funds should be used to fully compensate for the losses of Ukraine,” said the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted to von der Leyen’s words by threatening “adequate” measures in response. As the official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, noted, in the event of “real confiscation of the property of Russian citizens, enterprises, state reserves of our country,” Moscow will give a real answer.