Dangerous path: Can Russians achieve the cancellation of decisions on recovery of their assets in Ukraine

Focus writes about it in the new article "Russian Billions. Why the confiscation of assets of the Russian Federation in Ukraine". "This mechanism can be applied to persons who pose a significant threat to national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine or have largely contributed to committing such actions by other persons," said Irina Kobets, LCF LAW Group adviser, and the case head.

In particular, it was applied to the real estate in Zaporozhye of Russian businessman Volodymyr Yevtushenko, Mezhigorye and Sukholuchya Yanukovych, metallurgical assets of the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and others. The advantage of this procedure - speed - is at the same time its disadvantage, says Denis Shkarovsky, expert from sanction legislation, lawyer, partner VB Partners.

After all, the application of sanctions occurs without checking the evidence, on the basis of generalizing certificates of different bodies. "In this speed, mistakes are sometimes made, and the use of sanctions may be unjustified. There is no effective procedure for reviewing or canceling sanctions. In fact, the procedure is manual and sometimes with obvious abuse," the expert explained. However, the legality of such a simplified procedure can be appealed in international courts.

"There is a risk that these institutions will not agree with the advantage of political expediency to the proper procedure, and the decision to nationalize will be revised in the years not in favor of Ukraine," the lawyer stressed. A longer, but more complex mechanism for appealing - confiscation in criminal proceedings. The use of confiscation is possible only for committing specific types of crimes.

For example, almost all crimes against the basics of national security involve confiscation of property, says Shkarovsky. "The key problem is the inefficiency of law enforcement and judicial bodies. Although criminal prosecution is a longer procedure, it is not extraordinary in nature and provides higher standards of proof. Accordingly, even in case of issuing the issue for consideration of international instances, the likelihood of a decision in favor of Ukraine It is higher, "Shkarovsky said.

According to him, the state (in the person of law enforcement agencies) constantly in manual mode seizes property and transfer it to the ARMA. This also applies to the property of the Russians. In this state, assets can be for years without sentence. Confiscation within the framework of criminal proceedings is a more effective mechanism, but requires a coherent and effective work of courts and law enforcement "Issues The sentence on the confiscation of property of persons who committed the crime.

For example, against the basics of national security, " - summarized the lawyer. Recall that the states of the world in response to aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine also apply sanctions to its citizens. So, the other day in the Czech Republic of the Department of Financial Analysis blocked the accounts of companies and arrested the assets of the Kremlin close to the Kremlin Vladimir Yevtushenko for one hundred million crowns (UAH 163 million).