The government has adopted a project allowing the freezing of the property of entities directly or indirectly supporting the activities of the Russian Federation in connection with the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, government spokesman Piotr Muller said.
“The bill, which has now been submitted to the Sejm on special solutions for counteracting aggression in Ukraine, is a package of measures that extends the sanctioning possibilities directly at the national level, which we can implement individually in the country. […] Poland from the beginning, in accordance with EU sanctions, it freezes all assets, all assets that result directly from EU sanctions, currently it is over PLN 160 million, which have been frozen,” said Muller during a press conference
He clarified that it was about freezing and not confiscation of property – because this is not possible according to the constitution.
“The Council of Ministers decided to adopt another package of solutions that will enable such measures to be taken in the field of freezing funds in Poland. This bill assumes that we will block the assets of entities that contribute to the support of the Russian invasion of an independent and sovereign Ukraine. The point is to create – as I mentioned – lists of persons and entities separate from EU sanctions, contained in EU regulations, separate from these lists, against which it will be possible to apply measures similar to sanction measures, which result from EU regulations,” he emphasized.
He specified that the actions will include freezing, inter alia, funds, deposits and remittances.
“In this way, we will be able to take actions that freeze various types of funds, including cash, checks, deposits, remittances, all such funds that can be used to support the operation of the Russian Federation. It will also be possible to freeze economic resources, it will be possible this concerned both tangible and intangible assets, movable and immovable, all things that could support the activities of the Russian Federation,” he stressed.
He emphasized that the adopted regulation extends EU regulations “by referring to security reasons”.
The list of entities whose assets will be frozen will be kept by the head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration and the list will be public.
Entities not complying with this regulation will be held criminally and financially liable. The maximum financial penalty may be up to PLN 20 million.
Source: ISBnews
