Sanctioned Russians will have to disclose their assets in European Union countries under the bloc’s latest package of measures, and failure to comply could lead to undeclared assets being seized.
The measure is part of a suite of actions adopted by the EU on Thursday that also includes a ban on Russian gold imports, new trade restrictions on key technologies and several fixes to earlier sanctions aimed at ensuring that any limits do not impact the movement of food and agricultural goods.
The EU has not sanctioned food and other essential goods, and officials say there is no evidence to suggest its measures may have hindered trade in those essential items, even indirectly. These changes are about providing additional assurances, an EU official said.
Individuals and entities who are added to the EU’s sanctions list will need to provide relevant authorities with information about any funds or other economic resources, such as property, that they hold or control in Europe, according to the measure. Not doing so will be considered a circumvention of the bloc’s sanctions.
Under the EU’s current regime, sanctioned assets are frozen, meaning that they cannot be used and if the penalties expire the assets are unfrozen. Managing frozen assets is also costly for member states.
The EU has been looking at ways to beef up its powers in order to be able to seize rather than freeze assets so that for example those assets could be used to contribute to Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.
Among the options on the table is a proposal to make sanctions evasion a crime, thus providing the legal basis needed to seize assets.
If individuals breach the sanctions regulation, in principle, they could be subject to a criminal investigation, another EU official said. Any action would depend on member states and would ultimately be a question for national courts but it could lead to a confiscation of assets that have not been reported, said the official.
The official added that the move was also meant as an incentive for sanctioned individuals to self-report their asset.
