More than half of the notifications regarding the application of international financial sanctions have been submitted by credit institutions. Pursuant to law, the sanctions must be applied and reported by all natural and legal persons in Estonia, including private companies, lawyers, notaries, and registrars.
The Financial Intelligence Unit assesses the legality of the measures applied on a daily basis. Authorisations will also be granted, upon request, for exemptions made possible by the legislation establishing the sanctions. The total volume of frozen funds is affected by the use of exceptions and receipts from sanctioned parties to cover the transactions allowed by the exemption.
“Six months ago, when the war in Ukraine had been raging for one month, the total amount of legitimately imposed financial sanctions was nearly EUR 1.7 million. As of today, nearly EUR 20.8 million have been frozen, within which there are no claims or lost income. The increase in frozen funds is due to the oligarch who was added to the sanction list in the interim, as well as the identification of additional economic resources regarding a person who was already on the list. The economic resources of the companies involved with these two oligarchs today account for 95% of all frozen funds,” said Matis Mäeker, Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit.
The lists of sanctions shall be established by the European Union. Statistics on frozen economic resources include transactions that have been reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit. “When publishing statistics, it is necessary to assess whether frozen economic resources, primarily transactions, are still subject to withholding or whether they need to be released due to a change in ownership or control relationships. Therefore, those companies covered by the current statistics and financial sanction restrictions have been submitted as at this moment and may already be something else by tomorrow,” Added Mäeker.
Due to EU regulations and the lists of those who are subject to sanctions appended as annexes thereto, the funds of the following companies related to Viatcheslav Kantor have been restricted in Estonia: DBT AS, Capco Holdings Ltd, Rainbee Holdings Ltd, Baltic Cargo Survey OÜ, Opansa Enterprises Ltd, Seatrader Agency OÜ, Acron Switzerland AG, North Atlantic Potash Inc, Balttrans LLC; and company assets associated with Andrey Melnichenko: Eurochem Trading GMBH, Eurochem Group AG, Eurochem Terminal Sillamäe OÜ, Eurochem Antwerpen.
“For companies related to both subjects of sanctions, the Financial Intelligence Unit has issued permits with exceptions that allow for the safe handling of chemicals and thus the safety of people and the environment, and we will continue to review any applications we receive,” explained Matis Mäeker.
Other persons entered in the EU sanctions list, whose related company funds have been frozen, are: Alexey Mordaschov (TT Baltics SIA, Severstal Distribution SIA) and Alexey Nechayev (Faberlic Europe sp. Z o.o., Faberlic Baltija SIA). In addition, funds from Promsvyazbank and VTB Bank have been frozen.
Since 2014, the European Union has imposed restrictive measures against 1236 persons and 115 entities that have, either directly or indirectly, undermined Ukraine’s sovereignty or territorial integrity.
