Austria freezes 254 million euros in Russian assets – EURACTIV.com
Austrian authorities have frozen a total of 254 million euros in Russian assets in 97 accounts linked to Russian oligarchs, the Chancellor’s Office said.
The inter-ministerial working group, which includes the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the National Bank, the Office for the Financial Market and a number of ministries, was set up to record the assets of the sanctioned Russians.
In the meantime, 254 million euros have been frozen – that is “twice as much as Germany was able to report in March,” the office said in a press release.
“With these measures, we are hitting the oligarchs exactly where it hurts them: with their money,” said Chancellor Karl Nehammer. From Friday (May 27) the government will implement a system for reporting leads to freeze more money.
“That is also my message: Austria will do everything possible to enforce the sanctions against warmongers and supporters of Putin without ifs and buts,” added Nehammer, who is the only EU head of state to have visited Putin since the beginning of the war.
However, the task force has made little progress since early April, when it announced it had frozen €216 million. In comparison, the Netherlands had frozen around 400 million euros by the end of April, while Italy had registered around 800 million euros in assets.
Meanwhile, activists occupied a villa near Salzburg owned by former Russian Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. The group hung banners reading “Anarchos instead of Oligarchos” before exiting the property late Saturday (May 21).