HS: Finland seized more than 80 million euros worth of Russian assets | News

Finnish authorities have frozen assets worth more than 80 million euros due to sanctions imposed on Russia, the daily Helsingin Sanomat reported on Sunday.

The property belonged to Russian individuals and entities who are under EU sanctions due to the attack on Ukraine nearly three months ago.

More than 1,000 individuals and 80 entities are subject to an asset freeze ‘because their actions undermined the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine’, according to the European Council .

According to the newspaper, authorities have already assessed the value of most of the frozen assets, but those not yet priced will likely be worth more on average than the rest of the property.

The frozen real estate includes the property of the Rotenberg family, which previously held large stakes in the Jokerit ice hockey team and the Helsinki Arena. The foreclosed property includes an eight million euro villa in the southern resort town of Hanko. It belongs to Boris Rotenbergindustrial magnate and close associate of the president Vladimir Poutine who has held a Finnish passport since 2002. He was eligible because his former stepfather was an Ingrian Finn.

In March, customs officials said they had stopped 21 Russian-owned luxury yachts from leaving Finland.

Large shipments of raw materials were also seized. For example, up to 44 million euros of iron ore pellets are held in the port area of ​​Kokkola on the west coast of Finland. The EU banned imports of all steel products from Russia and Belarus in March. Some 1.4 million euros of acetic acid in the stocks of a Kotka company were also frozen.

The National Enforcement Authority Finland has seized more than 1,000 wagons from Russian freight trains. She estimates that the value of the wagons and their contents may amount to tens of millions of euros.

Cars are stored in secret places on sidings and yards to prevent tampering or vandalism, Eljas Koistinencommercial director of VR Transpoint, told the newspaper.

The confiscated cars occupy approximately 20 kilometers of track. The longest Russian freight trains that passed through Finland were about a kilometer long.

State rail operator VR caused confusion at the start of the war by first banning Russian freight trains, then allowing them again for a while before blocking them again.