With the beginning of spring, there is more news in the‘confiscation arena’ of Russian assets

Here is a selection of the most relevant and significant events related to the confiscation of Russian assets in Ukraine and worldwide as of mid-March.

• The lawsuit for confiscation of Rotenberg's assets has been filed: Ocean Plaza is finally going to be transferred to the state. Rotenberg is the fourth Russian oligarch to have his assets confiscated in Ukraine. In total, this is the sixteenth lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Justice for confiscation under the special mechanism (for a detailed analysis of all cases, see here). Read more about what else may be confiscated from the oligarch here;
• The District Court of the Eastern District of New York has authorized the confiscation of a Boeing aircraft owned by the Russian oil company Rosneft, worth more than $25 million. The reason for this was a violation of export controls and sanctions against Russia. We hope that due to the relevant amendments, these funds will soon be transferred to Ukraine;
• In the distant Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, the Alfa Nero yacht of Russian oligarch Guriev, worth $81 million, was auctioned off. It is known that the yacht of the sanctioned oligarch has been abandoned since February 2022 and has not been serviced. In this regard, the government decided to sell it at auction. This is a vivid example of the fact that the assets of the Russian regime's henchmen cannot be hidden even in the most remote corners of the world;
• The Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office has opened 45 investigations into the circumvention of EU sanctions against Russia. 29 of them relate to violations of import and export sanctions, while the rest are violations of financial sanctions. The number of such cases is expected to increase. The criminalization of sanctions circumvention in the EU allows for the confiscation of such criminal assets.
• Estonia plans to prepare a long-awaited bill on the confiscation of frozen Russian assets within a few months. Estonian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Veski said that a pan-European solution is more optimal but takes a lot of time, while this principle could be enshrined in Estonian domestic law more quickly, thus paving the way for the rest of the Union. Ukraine has been expecting such a decision since the end of 2022.

More information on the situation with the confiscation of Russian assets can be found on our confiscation tracker, an interactive website that displays up-to-date information on the amounts, legislation, court decisions, and political positions of countries on confiscation:

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