EU Freezes Russian Assets Worth $70Bln With Belgium Alone Accounting For $52Bln - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th November, 2022) The European Union has frozen Russian assets worth 68 billion Euros ($70.5 billion), most of them in Belgium, the Politico news outlet reported on Friday, citing an internal document of the European Commission.

According to the news outlet, Belgium accounts for up to 50 billion euros in Russian frozen assets, followed by Luxembourg with 5.5 billion euros. Together with Italy, Germany, Ireland, Austria and France, the two countries make up around 90% of all frozen Russian assets in Europe.

At the same time, the outlet noted that the total sum of Russia's national reserves frozen in the EU remained unknown.

The internal document estimated it at around 33.8 billion euros, Politico said.

Western countries and their allies have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Russia over its military operation in Ukraine. The measures included freezing Russia's foreign Currency reserves and halting international payments from Russian banks. In mid-March, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov estimated that about half of Russia's gold and foreign currency reserves, worth over $300 billion, were frozen.