Russia seized the assets of EU banks worth more than 700 million euros in one week

Arrested by the court of St. Petersburg more than 700 million euros of assets owned by three Western banks – UniCredit, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. It was reported by the Financial Times.

It was noted that this is one of the biggest steps taken by the Russian Federation against Western financial institutions since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian court’s move to freeze the assets of two German and Italian banks is linked to a response to calls from the European Central Bank to speed up the exit of European banks from Russia.

The arrests are based on a case RusHimalayansasubsidiary Gazpromin a case of alleged failure to fulfill obligations in a joint project.

The court seized the assets of the second largest European bank in the Russian Federation, UniCredit, in the amount of 463 million euros, which is equivalent to approximately 4.5% of its assets in the country.

The Russian court also seized Deutsche Bank’s assets in the amount of 238.6 million euros, including property and funds in its accounts in the Russian Federation.

In addition, the court decided to seize the assets of the German Commerzbank. RusHimalliance requested to freeze up to 94.9 million euros of bank assets. The court ruled that the bank cannot sell its business in Russia – for this it needs the consent of the head of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.

Let’s recall that in February the European Union imposed sanctions against three private banks in the Russian Federation – Tinkoff, Alfa Bank And Rosbank.

The Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals is selling 5 billion hryvnias worth of assets of former subsidiaries of Russian banks through online auctions.