2022-05-17T18:53:00+03:00 Economy 2024-09-15T07:19:03+03:00

Ukrainian news

Easiest Way To Confiscate Russia's Assets Is Due To Martial Law, But It Obliges To Compensate For Their Value

Easiest Way To Confiscate Russia's Assets Is Due To Martial Law, But It Obliges To Compensate For Their Value

The easiest way to confiscate Russia's assets is to confiscate property in connection with martial law, but it obliges to compensate for their value.

This is stated in the message of the Ministry of Justice with reference to the words of the Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

According to the Minister, Ukraine has four possible directions of confiscation of assets of Russia and related companies.

First, it is the confiscation of such property by a court decision, as happened with the assets of Verkhovna Rada Member Viktor Medvedchuk, when the property was seized as part of criminal proceedings by the court.

The property indicated in the list of court decisions was transferred to the management of the National Agency for Identifying, Tracing, and Managing Assets Linked to Corruption and other Crimes (Asset Recovery Agency), and then the Asset Recovery Agency in connection with the specific status of assets, transferred them to the management of the Naftogaz of Ukraine national joint-stock company according to a simplified procedure through the order of the Cabinet of Ministers.

The second direction is a new law on the confiscation of Russian assets, which has already been sent for signature to the President.

According to it, the decision on confiscation will be made by the High Anti-Corruption Court on the basis of several dozen criteria by which persons who will fall under sanctions, including sanctions in the form of property collection in the state's income, will be determined.

At the same time, the transfer of property to the ownership of the state will take place quite quickly - within a month after the collection of documents confirming Russian property, as well as the connection and support of the aggressor state.

Thirdly, there is a current law - on the nationalization of the property of the Russian state, in particular, it concerns Sberbank and its assets and Prominvestbank.

The fourth is the easiest way - confiscation of property in connection with martial law.

However, according to Maliuska, this path is undesirable.

Although such confiscation does not require any argument, there is an obligation to compensate for the value of the property.

Therefore, this method has not yet been used.

According to Maliuska, real steps to confiscate Russian assets in Ukraine will be a good example for the international community to do the same, especially since Ukraine has already proposed a legal mechanism for such an implementation.

The Minister noted that if this mechanism is implemented by Western partners in the near future, then Ukraine will be able to count on receiving money from the Central Bank of Russia at the end of this year.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in early March, the Verkhovna Rada introduced a sentence of life imprisonment with confiscation of property for high treason and sabotage under martial law.