London to tighten rules for accessing funds for Russians under sanctions

British officials will now reject applications to use frozen funds for litigation,if they are related to cases of defamation (dissemination of defamatory information)Her Majesty's Treasury in London,Great Britain

The UK will change the way it decides whether to allow sanctioned individuals to use frozen money to pay for legal proceedings. This was stated by the Deputy head of the British Ministry of Finance Joanna Penn, reports The Guardian.

According to her, British officials will now proceed from the fact that such statements should be rejected if they are intended to be used in "defamatory and similar cases" (defamation is the dissemination of defamatory information).

"In most cases, using frozen funds to pay professional defamation lawyers' fees is not an appropriate use of funds and in many cases would be against the public interest," Penn said.

She noted that the Office of Financial Sanctions Enforcement (OFSI) would review each individual application on a case-by-case basis for relevance and respect for the right to a fair trial, and would proceed on the basis that defamation cases should be dismissed.

Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the European Commission, together with several EU countries, plans to launch a joint project in the summer to monitor compliance with sanctions against Russia. Agency sources noted that it is aimed at filling gaps in the sanctions regime and coordination between national governments.

Nine countries are currently participating in the initiative: the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.

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At the end of March, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, also announced that the 11th EU sanctions package would be aimed at eliminating loopholes and strengthening enforcement of sanctions.

Russia considers the sanctions illegal and illegitimate. However, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the West's hope that the Russian economy would collapse has not materialized.