According to Bank Saint-Petersburg, 110 million dollars should be released.
By the editor
Lhe Bank Saint-Petersburg has announced that it will take legal action against the Belgian state, reported The Echo. The Russian bank estimates “entering into the conditions to obtain the unfreezing of around 110 million dollars blocked by Belgium on the accounts of Euroclear”.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has adopted numerous sanctions packages. Among these, the freezing of the finances of the Russian power and those close to Putin. At the beginning of June, the National Settlement Depository (NSD), a Russian version of the Belgian intermediary Euroclear, was added to the list of natural and legal persons affected by these sanctions. However, Bank Saint-Petersburg has an NSD account opened with Euroclear.
“Russian entrepreneurs have shares in NSD accounts housed at Euroclear and everything is frozen even if the entrepreneurs have nothing to do with the sanctions regime”, defends Cédric Alter, for Bank Saint-Petersburg in the pages of The Echo, specifying that the bank has nothing to do with Russian power and should therefore not suffer from European sanctions.
While the Russian bank had already requested that the shares on NSD accounts be unfrozen, the Council of the European Union published on October 6, a paragraph which made it possible to release the funds held or deposited with NSD.
Since then, no response from the Belgian Treasury. The Bank Saint-Petersburg has therefore decided to take the Belgian State to court, through the Treasury dependent on the FPS Finances. He hasn’t commented yet.
