The European authorities intend to significantly expand the principles for imposing and enforcing sanctions. Bloomberg sources claim that the new package allows the EU to impose secondary sanctions against individuals and entities that helped circumvent existing restrictions, as well as seize the frozen assets of Russia and Russians in order to transfer these assets to help Ukraine.
Experts note that the new package of sanctions for the first time uses the extraterritorial principle: it allows you to impose restrictions not only against persons associated with the European Union and acting within the framework of European law, but also outside it. EU members have previously been criticized for this approach by colleagues from the United States, however, as experts say, they themselves have now begun to use similar principles. At the same time, there is still a fundamental difference: if the United States can impose sanctions against any individual and legal entity, then the EU is ready to impose sanctions against foreign citizens and companies only for assisting European citizens who violated the sanctions regime.
The new policy will affect those companies and citizens who help European products reach Russia through third countries, in particular through Turkey. Moreover, the European Union is considering introducing new restrictions that will affect Russian assets. The publication claims that the European authorities are ready to revise the current legislation in order to be able not only to freeze Russian assets, but also to be able to sell or transfer them to restore Ukraine. Thus, the principle of private property will be revised and the declared criminal assets can be used to compensate for Ukrainian and European losses. Previously, the European Union was not ready to change this principle, despite the pressure from Kyiv.
Ukraine has repeatedly tried to gain access to frozen Russian assets abroad in order to use these funds to rebuild the country. The last time the attempt was carried out through the UN, Kiev sought to convince its members of the need to adopt an appropriate resolution. Most of Ukraine's allies back in September were against the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, with the exception of the United States, which considered such a possibility. However, the mobilization announced by Vladimir Putin and the further escalation of the conflict seem to have changed the EU's opinion on the issue. In total, more than $300 billion of Russian assets have been frozen in the jurisdictions of "unfriendly" countries. This amount does not include the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs and businessmen who fell under the sanctions.