BEIJING, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) According to RIA Novosti, European Commission spokesman Christian Wiegand said on the 12th local time that the EU supports Estonia in confiscating Russian assets frozen by it due to sanctions.
According to reports, Wiegand said that criminalizing the circumvention of sanctions would help to confiscate assets that were tried to hide, "This is part of our efforts to use such funds to rebuild Ukraine ... If EU member states take action in this regard Measures will be a good thing."
Estonian Foreign Minister Reinsalu said on the 4th that Estonia plans to independently establish a mechanism to transfer frozen Russian financial assets to Kyiv for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
According to "Russia Today" (RT) citing sources from the Estonian financial intelligence service, the total amount of assets frozen in accounts owned by Russia in the country is about 20 million euros.
Nikolai Topolnin, an associate professor at the Department of European Law at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, said that the amount of funding is small, but it may "set a precedent."
In this regard, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zakharova stated that the confiscation of Russian assets by Estonia and other unfriendly countries is illegal and theft, and Russia will respond.
Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian President, also said earlier that the confiscation of property, the seizure of aircraft, and the imposition of sanctions on Russian businessmen show that the sanctity of Western private property has collapsed.