Italy freezes property of Russians subject to EU sanctions

The Italian Financial Guard has imposed new restrictive measures on the property of Russians who fell under EU sanctions due to the Ukrainian crisis, Report informs referring to the press service of the government’s Chigi Palace.

This includes real estate belonging to the property of Galina Pumpyanskaya, the wife of businessman Dmitry Pumpyansky. The object, located in the northern province of Lecco, is estimated at about 300,000 euros. The list also includes a sculpture, which was acquired by Alfa Group co-founder Alexei Kuzmichev in 2021. Its cost is approximately 230,000 euros.

Since the beginning of March, the Financial Guard of Italy has been carrying out procedures to “freeze” residential real estate, companies, yachts and cars of Russians that have fallen under sanctions. The measure of restraint in the case of “sanctioned” assets of Russians is not an arrest, but freezing, which means the inability to use and dispose of the property. One of the brightest “lots” in the list of frozen assets was the Scheherazade yacht for 650 million euros, which the local media called the most expensive in the world.

La Repubblica previously reported that Italy will spend almost 13.7 million euros this year to maintain the frozen property of Russians, while the government has prepared amendments according to which it will be able to sell the seized property in whole or in part to reimburse costs. The total amount of blocked assets in the publication was estimated at 2 billion euros.