Search for Russian assets: Germany freezes 5.3 billion euros

The sanctions against Russian oligarchs in Germany are initially slow.

Search for Russian assets: Germany freezes 5.3 billion euros

The sanctions against Russian oligarchs in Germany are initially slow. In the meantime, however, the Ministry of Finance has come up with a sum of more than 5.3 billion euros. And there is still no end in sight. The central office created for this purpose for the enforcement of sanctions is to receive more staff.

Almost a year after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Russian assets worth 5.32 billion euros have been sanctioned in Germany. This reports the "Welt am Sonntag" and refers to information from the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Accordingly, the total is made up of assets from Russian "entities", which include natural persons and companies on the EU sanctions list as well as the Central Bank of Russia. According to the newspaper, the ministry did not want to answer how high the frozen assets of oligarchs in Germany are.

The Central Office for Sanctions Enforcement (ZfS), which should start work at the beginning of the year, is still under construction, according to the "Welt am Sonntag". According to this, 36 employees work there so far. "Further personnel expansion is being pushed forward continuously," the finance ministry told the newspaper.

"The structures are being set up" for "priority areas such as asset determination". The central office is intended to collect information on sanctioned persons and their assets that has been distributed to various federal and state authorities.