The head of the Czech Foreign Ministry called the freezing of Russian property in accordance with the law

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky commented on the words of Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov about the illegality of freezing Russian property in the country. According to the Czech politician, the asset freeze is a legal step and complies with the sanctions law. Mr. Lipavsky also added that to defend this decision there are legal remedies in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or in court. The agency reported this CTK.

On November 15, Jan Lipavsky announced that FSUE Goszagranprosperty, which manages Russian real estate abroad, was included in the Czech sanctions list. The Foreign Minister stressed that the restrictions will not affect the facilities of the Russian diplomatic mission, such as the Russian embassy or the residence of the Russian ambassador.

According to Dmitry Peskov, the sanctions imposed on State Foreign Property are absolutely illegal from the point of view of international decision law. Mr. Peskov said that the Russian government is studying the situation and does not rule out retaliatory steps if property is frozen.

Earlier, Prime Minister of the Republic Petr Fiala reported on Facebook (the social network belongs to Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) that the Czech Republic will seek sanctions against state property of the Russian Federation at the European level. According to the statement of the politician in X, the Czech Republic will try to convince other EU states to also freeze the assets of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Goszagranobstvo.

Due to the sanctions, about $300 billion of Russia’s reserves were frozen. According to the Bank of Russia, at the end of 2022, the assets of Russian investors amounting to about 5.7 trillion rubles were blocked in the European depositories Euroclear and Clearstream. In the summer of 2023, the European Commission was going to make a proposal to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine, but later the European Union stated that there were no legal grounds for the complete confiscation of frozen Russian assets.

Read more about the fate of frozen Russian assets in the Kommersant article – “Republicans are offering frozen assets to Ukraine.”

Arseny Pushkin