Today at 19:56
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland approved the first transfer of confiscated assets of sanctioned Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev for use in Ukraine. The exact amount in question is not specified, the media suggest that it could be more than $5 million. Last year, the Justice Department indicted a Russian oligarch for violating sanctions imposed on him for funding Russians promoting separatism in Russian-occupied territories, FREEDOM reports.
“This is really a very important moment to understand that there is a direct link to those who finance Russia’s war against Ukraine, and this is really the beginning. Now this will become an example for more concrete actions for other countries, because today there is a huge problem with returning the confiscated money to Ukraine. If we take the example of the United States specifically, then all this happened within the framework of a criminal case, that is, there is no separate procedure yet, when the money was confiscated and given to Ukraine without trial, ”says Valery Klochok, head of the Tower Center for Public Analytics.
The Polish prosecutor’s office seized more than $1 million from the accounts of the Russian embassy and trade mission. The accounts were frozen in March last year. The Polish authorities considered that these funds could be used to “finance terrorist activities or money laundering.” The decision to change the status of holding funds, according to the prosecutor’s office, was not challenged by the Russian side in court.
“The confiscation of frozen assets, in my opinion, needs to be moved very quickly, because it specifically hits Russia, Russian oligarchs and Russian capital. Even if the frozen assets, they are just somewhere, lying somewhere, at least the Russians, although they do not use them, they know that sooner or later there is a prospect of returning them. After the confiscation, there will no longer be such a prospect, ”added Klochok.
According to a new investigation by the team of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, close relatives of Boris Obnosov, the head of the Russian manufacturer of anti-ship, radar and multi-purpose missiles of the Tactical Missiles Corporation, own luxury real estate in the Czech Republic worth more than 8 million euros.
“Obnosov’s son-in-law, Rostislav Zorikov, through Alterra and Riomax, owns a four-story house in the Zizkov district in Prague worth six million euros. Zorikov also, according to documents obtained by FBK, owns a 140-meter penthouse in Prague worth 1.1 million euros. There is a sign on the door of the house that Rostislav Zorikov and his wife Olga, daughter of Boris Obnosov, live there. In the same residential complex, according to documents, Andrey Zorikov’s father owns a 73-meter apartment,” said Maria Pevchikh, a representative of the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Navalny’s team indicated that the Corporation manufactures missiles, in particular Kh-101 and Kh-22, with which the Russian army attacks, including residential buildings and other civilian targets in Ukraine. Maria Pevchikh promised that the foundation would send complaints to all Czech departments and demand that sanctions be imposed against Boris Obnosov and the Zorikovs to prevent them from entering the Czech Republic.
To search for sanctioned assets, in March 2022, officials from the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK and the EU created the Task Force, a task force that searches for and seizes the assets of individuals and legal entities that are subject to sanctions. During the year of its work, the group froze the assets of Russians for more than 58 billion dollars.
Recall that the damage caused to Ukraine as a result of Russian aggression is more than 400 billion dollars. This figure is based on a World Bank estimate and takes into account only the damage caused to the territories controlled by Ukraine.
