Finland has seized nearly a thousand Russian freight cars as a result of EU sanctions, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
After the EU sanctioned Russian coal in April, Finland’s state-owned rail operator VR moved to reduce railway traffic from Russia. According to a June 6 letter from Russian Railways to the Ministry of Transport, 865 Russian freight cars have been seized by Finnish bailiffs.
VR officials confirmed that about 800 sanctioned Russian freight cars were in Finland at the moment and that the company wishes to return any that have not been seized. VR’s head of logistics said there were around 5,000 Russian cars when it decided to reduce traffic, and that bailiff authorities ordered some to be seized.
The seized railway cars belong to Russian companies either targeted by EU sanctions or dealing with indirect consequences of sanctions. Russian companies impacted by the freight car seizure have denounced the move as “unlawful.”
Finnish bailiff authorities told Reuters that Finland had frozen the assets of dozens of Russian and Belarusian individuals and legal entities, including transportation firms. In total, the frozen assets are worth about $84 million.
This week at a conference in Switzerland, Ukrainian officials said they wanted seized Russian assets and Russia’s frozen foreign currency reserves to be used to pay for Ukraine’s future reconstruction. But Western officials have yet to agree to the plan, as such a move would be outright theft.
Interesting how NATO Gnomes seem fearless of Russian wrath.. Perhaps this IS the time for Russia to kill chickens to scare the monkeys {Gnomes}…….
A Chinese idiom. Very good, I learn something new everyday 🙂
I assume that when they come to Russia to heat their homes this winter, reimbursement for these seizures will have to be made in full before the talks can even begin.
Once again Zelensky demanding more money for a country that will cease to exist!
Day by day, action by action, we move closer to all out war in Europe.
Is Russia reciprocating with Western assets?
Chinese MFA view https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d0c3aa121d2733d03ebcc1f5bace6339823190544fd31fd58d1b63cb9fdabba.jpg
Cut off all energy exports to NATO countries and let them use firewood to run their industrial plants.
How much exposure does Finland have to Russia seizing Finish assets, or counter actions like rail and road blockade?
This is not likely to be one-sided. See Lithuania’s actions for the following consequences.