Austria announced an asset freeze for 254 million euros
Austria has frozen Russian assets worth about 254 million euros in a total of 97 accounts. About it informs TV channel ORF with reference to the release of the country’s resolution. The amount has doubled compared to March, when a specially created task force was engaged in searching for the income of Russian businessmen who could fall under consumption.
It operates under the control of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) within the Ministry of the Interior and in a structure with other ministries. In addition to freezing accounts, investigators found five suspicious entries in the land registry. As a result, it was concluded that the search for those at risk is complicated by the difficulties in establishing links between corporate structures, trust enterprises and sanctioned persons.
The government is demanding a full report on the initiation of the criminal case by the end of May. Earlier, the head of the Austrian M. Gerhard Karner announced a complex examination, including the desire for in-depth work, and Chancellor Karl Nehammer said that it was necessary to withdraw the money of the “oligarchs”, to hurt them. He could do “everything possible to appoint powers against Putin’s military leaders and governments” without any reservations.
Since February 2022, the European Union has adopted five packages in response to Russia’s “special operation”* in Ukraine. The sanctions affected the EU 1091 people and 80 organizations, specified in the release of the Austrian resolution. As of the end of April, the EU countries froze Russian assets worth 35 billion euros, including France – 23.5 billion euros, Belgium – 10 billion euros, Italy – 1.1 billion euros, Ireland – 839.4 million euros.
*According to the requirements of Roskomnadzor, when producing materials for use in production in Ukraine, all Russian media are required to use materials only from conventional sources of the Russian Federation. We cannot publish materials during which an operation called “attack”, “invasion” or “declaration of war” is carried out, unless it is a direct quote (Article 57 of the Federal Law on the Media). In case of violation of the requirements, the media may be fined 5 million rubles, and the blocking of the publication may also be continued.