Due to non-application of law on sanctions against Russian oligarchs, Ukraine has already lost 2.5 billion dollars, - mass media
The president’s office is in no hurry to confiscate the assets of Russian oligarchs.
This was reported by the head of the legal department of the NGO "Anti-corruption Center" Olena Shcherban, Censor.NET informs with reference to ZN.UA.
Today, there are two key ways to take Ukrainian assets from Russians involved in aggression. The first is confiscation in criminal proceedings. The second is the imposition of a sanction in the form of asset confiscation. The key difference between these tools is time. While it would take years to seize assets through criminal proceedings, 10 days are set aside for sanctioned forfeiture under current law.
"Arrest in a criminal case is a temporary phenomenon. Practice shows that sometimes it is enough to remove the arrest from property for a few hours in order to transfer it to another person or simply withdraw money from accounts. The way of confiscation due to sanctions is also a difficult procedure, but it provides an opportunity for much more rather, within a few months, withdraw the asset for the benefit of the state and invest in victory. By its nature, the sanction is a countermeasure, that is, our response to aggression," Olena Shcherban emphasizes.
However, the adoption of the law on sanctions does not mean that it will be implemented. According to the representative of the NGO "Center for Combating Corruption", in Ukraine it has been ignored for the fourth month.
"During this time that has passed since May 24, sanctions have been imposed on 892 persons, only a few of them are businessmen, and the rest have practically no assets in Ukraine. Therefore, in practice, out of almost nine hundred persons, we have only one satisfied lawsuit about confiscation of the assets of the Russian oligarch Yevtushenkov. But this is not the worst yet. During these months, the state did not even manage to impose a blocking sanction on the key assets of Russian businessmen. Without blocking, the confiscation process through the Ministry of Justice and VAKS cannot even be started," says Olena Shcherban.
However, the Ukrainian authorities still prefer the rest in criminal cases with a phantom confiscation at the end. Russian officials, oligarchs, propagandists appear in hundreds of episodes. The path of criminal proceedings may turn out to be not only long and ineffective, but also risky, the publication says.
Among the vivid examples are numerous cases related to corruption and other crimes of ex-president Yanukovych and his entourage. In the eight years that have passed since the Revolution of Dignity, there is not a single verdict. However, during the investigation of these crimes, international sanctions against the specified persons and the very assets in Ukraine, which could potentially be seized for the benefit of the state, disappeared for years.
"Problems with the criminal cases of Yanukovych and his henchmen arose primarily as a result of the banal "merger" of such cases by law enforcement officers. Somewhere this happened because of corruption, somewhere because of the desire to "squeeze out" such assets," Olena Shcherban emphasizes.
Another example is the case of ex-minister Zlochevskyi. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office did not provide British colleagues with evidence of the illegal origin of more than $23 million. ex-minister, so they were arrested in Britain.
"Against this background, numerous reports about the arrests and transfer of assets of Russians to ARMA as part of criminal proceedings instead of sanctions look more like a hint of the possibility of negotiations with the Russians than a real desire to take away. At the same time, it is important to understand that sanctions do not exclude the investigation of crimes from on the part of the Russians," writes Olena Shcherban.
At the same time, it is important to understand that sanctions do not exclude the investigation of crimes by the Russians. There is nothing stopping the Russians from quickly seizing their assets through sanctions, sending funds to the military, and further investigating and prosecuting their crimes as long as necessary. Otherwise, the Russians have an excellent opportunity not only to avoid criminal liability, but also to keep all their assets.
As Vitaliy Shabunin, chairman of the board of the NGO "Anti-corruption Center" noted in his Telegram, the amount that Ukraine did not receive due to the non-working law is 2.5 billion dollars. These funds could go to support the Armed Forces.
"To make you aware of the amount, let me remind you that Ukrainians collected 16 million dollars for the Prytula bailiffs. 16 million against the 2.5 billion dollars of Putin's oligarchs, which the NSDC/OP do not notice at all," Shabunin wrote.
