Europe continues to seize and freeze Russian assets. This time, the Russian Central Bank was hit by sanctions.
European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said European Union states had reported the freezing of about €23 billion of assets of the Russian Central Bank. He said that of these frozen assets, only less than one-tenth was in the EU, according to information that the European Commission had collected from the 27 EU governments. However, Reynders stressed that €23 billion frozen by the EU was dwarfed by the $100 billion frozen by the United States.
In addition to Europe, the US, the UK, and Japan also imposed sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia in early March, freezing its reserves in their national currencies. The EU has previously banned transactions related to the management of Russian Central Bank reserves and assets, including transactions with any legal person, entity or body acting on behalf of, or at the direction of the Central Bank of Russia.