Prosecutors from Munich and officials from the Federal Criminal Police Office have confiscated three properties and a bank account from Russians in Germany.
The Russian Duma deputy L. and his wife K., who is registered as a resident of Munich, are affected.
Both are referred to by the Munich I public prosecutor as suspects, and the prosecuting authority did not provide any further information about the persons.
All of the apartments are located in the Munich city area, and monthly rental income of 3,500 euros is to flow into the bank account.
According to the investigators, this is the first case in Germany in which assets have not only been frozen on the basis of EU sanctions, but permanently withdrawn from access.
The authority considers this procedure to be possible on the basis of the Code of Criminal Procedure, despite the lack of "comparable processes and case law under German law".
Like many other Duma deputies, L. is on the EU sanctions list because he voted in the Federal Assembly to recognize the self-proclaimed People's Republics, areas of eastern Ukraine claimed by Russian separatists, as independent states.