European Union discloses a plan to sanction Russians who are no longer alive

The European Union declared on Monday that as part of the 12th round of sanctions against Moscow, it will keep freezing the assets of Russian nationals who are on a blacklist even after they pass away.

The ban was initially established by Brussels in 2022, with reference to the Russian military campaign in Ukraine. The primary measure of the most recent sanctions is the prohibition on the importation of Russian diamonds and specific metals, along with the exportation of dual-use technologies.

However, according to the European Commission, one of the measures includes the “possibility to keep deceased persons on the asset freeze list, in order to prevent the freezing measure from potentially being undermined.”

Persistent penalties against deceased individuals are an unprecedented action, the TASS news agency reports.

In addition, the EU declared that it will freeze the assets of any further more than 140 Russian individuals or businesses that might be located on its soil. The bloc was instructed to “proactively trace assets of listed persons” in order to make sure the embargo was not “breached or circumvented.”

The European Commission stated that if any Russian citizens profit from the “forced transfer of ownership or control” of EU companies’ subsidiaries in Russia, they will also face sanctions from the EU.

The organisation claims that by doing this, “no one will profit from the losses that EU companies face when their subsidiaries are forcibly acquired by Russian owners/management.”

According to a Sunday New York Times story, Western businesses who have sold their Russian operations since the ban started have lost a total of $103 billion and have paid the Russian government at least $1.25 billion in departure taxes.