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UKRAINE

France freezes €850 million of Russian assets

France has seized around €850 million of Russian oligarchs' assets on its soil, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday. 

France freezes €850 million of Russian assets
French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire speaks during a press conference to present an economic and social resilience plan, in Paris, on March 16, 2022. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)

“We have immobilised … 150 million euros in individual’s accounts, credit lines in France and in French establishments,” Le Maire told French television as Paris hits Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. 

Furthermore, “we have immobilised 539 million euros in real estate on French territory, corresponding to some 390 properties or apartments and we have sequestered two yachts (with a value of) 150 million euros,” said Le Maire. 

“In total that is (almost) 850 millions euros in assets belonging to Russian oligarchs which have been immobilised on French soil,” he added.  The French crackdown means the owners are unable to, sell on or monetise their assets. 

Notwithstanding, “they are not seized in the sense that the state becomes the owner and could then sell them on.

For there to be seizure there has to be a penal offence”, Le Maire stipulated. 

“The sanctions are hitting Russia, the state, Vladimir Putin hard,” Le Maire went on. 

Since Russian began its war in Ukraine on February 24 Western states have responded with a wide-ranging package of stiff financial sanctions. 

On Friday, Russia’s central bank said the extent of the sanctions would make macro economic forecasting “extremely difficult”. 

Four days after the invasion began Moscow hiked its main interest rate from 9.5 to 20 percent and the response to the conflict has largely cut Russia’s financial sector off from the global economy. 

SEE ALSO: Côte d’Azur mansions, jets, yachts: What is France likely to seize from Russian oligarchs?

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POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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