The EC proposed to consider the circumvention of sanctions a crime against the European Union

The commission made a corresponding proposal in order to guarantee the "virtual confiscation" of the assets of individuals and legal entities,who violate the sanctions

The European Commission (EC) has proposed considering the circumvention of sanctions as a crime against the European Union, follows from the May report of the EC's work on the union's security strategy.

“To ensure that the assets of natural and legal persons who violate restrictive measures can be effectively confiscated, the commission also proposes to add violation of EU restrictive measures to the list of EU crimes under Art. 83 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),” the document says.

According to Art. 83 (1) TFEU, today terrorism, human trafficking, sexual exploitation of women and children, drug and arms trafficking, money laundering, corruption, counterfeiting of means of payment, cyber and organized crime can be considered a crime against the European Union.

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Since the end of February, the US , UK, EU states and a number of other countries have begun to tighten sanctions against RUSSIA. Over the course of three months, several packages of restrictions were introduced that affected Russian companies associated with the defense and energy sectors, banks, transport companies, parliamentarians, officials, businessmen and journalists, as well as family members of sanctioned individuals.

In addition, the European Union and the United States blocked the assets of the Bank of Russia, freezing its transactions in order to limit "the use of its own international reserves to weaken the impact of Western sanctions." Finance Minister Anton Siluanov noted that due to restrictions , Russia has lost access to almost half of its gold and foreign exchange reserves - $ 300 billion.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier that the EU is looking for ways to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine. According to DPA, the corresponding proposal will be submitted on Wednesday, May 25.

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Russia, in response to the freezing of reserves, limited the movement of funds that could be transferred to unfriendly countries by a comparable amount. Foreign investors were banned from selling securities and withdrawing funds from the Russian financial system. Also, Russian President Vladimir Putin transferred payments for gas for unfriendly countries into rubles.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that Russia, together with Iran and China, intends to look for ways to bypass the restrictions. US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, in turn, threatened to deprive Chinese companies that ignore US restrictions on exports to Russia of US equipment and software they need to manufacture their own products.