After 100 days of work, the ‘REPO’ Task Force—which brings together the justice, finance, and trade ministers from G7 countries and Australia as well as the relevant European commissioners—has facilitated the seizure of $30 billion in assets owned by Russians who are being sanctioned by the West in response to the invasion of Ukraine at the end of February (see EUROPE 12914/5).
In particular, yachts owned or controlled by sanctioned Russian oligarchs, including the Amadea, the Tango, and the Amore Vero, as well as luxury real estate properties have been seized or frozen, according to a press release from the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance.
Moreover, the ‘REPO’ Task Force has also been working towards seizing approximately $300 billion worth of Russian Central Bank assets that are held in other central banks. Furthermore, it has restricted Russia’s access to the global financial system, notably by excluding part of the Russian banking sector from the SWIFT system so as to make it more difficult to access the technology needed to sustain the war effort. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)