Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

POLITICS

Why France is leading the EU in seizing Russian assets

Of the Russian assets seized in the EU under post-Ukraine sanctions rules, almost 60 percent of them are in France. Here's why the French government is leading Europe when it comes to enforcing sanctions on the Russian state and its oligarchs.

Published: 28 April 2022 16:17 CEST
Updated: 30 April 2022 10:37 CEST
Why France is leading the EU in seizing Russian assets
The yacht belonging to Russian oligarch Alexei Kuzmichev, which was frozen by French authorities. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

According to a European Commission assessment (dated April 5th), France has seized or frozen almost €24 billion in Russian assets – making up more than 60 percent of the total assets seized or frozen in the EU (about €35 billion).

So why has France seized so much more than its neighbours?

Assets

Part of the explanation lies in the simple fact that France has a lot of areas that appeal to the super-rich, of all nationalities.

The “Bay of Billionaires,” located near Antibes along the Mediterranean, has been a playground for rich Russians since the fall of the Soviet Union. On the Atlantic coast, Biarritz is also a popular spot to buy a vacation home for Russian elites, including members of the Putin family.

And then of course there is Paris.

The capital city is a hot spot for tourism and real estate investment, and the wealthy from across the world enjoy buying property in the beautiful and historic city centre – especially the four central arrondissements. In 2018, so many of these properties remained vacant that these four districts merged into a single one for electoral purposes, as not enough people lived there at the time and local elections had become too small. 

Cash reserves

But the seized €24 billion isn’t all made up of holiday homes, helicopters and yachts – a significant chunk of that is Russian central bank assets.

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said that of the total, around €2 billion is made up of private assets such as mansions, yachts and helicopters, and the remaining €22 billion is Russian Central Bank reserves.

Russia’s central bank stores a large amount of its reserve abroad as an insurance policy, should it need to prop up the ruble or avert inflation. Roughly 12 percent of the Russian central bank’s assets are with France. 

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

Financial assets are also represented in other countries’ seizure totals – for example, Belgium has reportedly frozen €10 billion in Russian assets, a significant chunk being frozen transactions normally made via the SWIFT international payment system, which is located in La Hulpe, outside Brussels.

Taskforce

But as well as having a lot of Russian assets in the country, France has also demonstrated strong political will when it comes to enforcing sanctions.

The government has created a taskforce – largely made up of customs officers and tax inspectors – to enforce sanctions. Before seizing property, the officers on the taskforce need to pick through the complicated web of shell companies and proxy ownership in order to establish what assets the oligarchs have.

The French Ministry of the Economy published a list of 41 properties owned by Russian oligarchs, and that list is expected to grow as more assets are discovered.

Currently, the majority of the properties on the list belong to just eight sanctioned billionaires.

Roman Abramovich is among the billionaires to make the naughty list – specifically via his €230 million Château de la Croë in Antibes on the French Riviera, where the former king Edward VIII lived after his abdication of the British crown and contentious marriage to Wallis Simpson.

Jérôme Fournel, the director general of public finance, told French daily The Parisian, that the taskforce does this via the several different files at its disposal, including the Ficoba registry (national file of bank and similar accounts), which lists in great detail all current accounts, savings accounts, securities accounts and safety deposit boxes opened in France.

The taskforce also works to map oligarchs’ assets and untangle sometimes complex financial arrangements.

Then, they access real estate dossiers, and as soon as an apartment or a villa belonging to one of the people on the list is identified, they instantly update the list. They quickly alert notaries to flag properties that cannot be sold or rented. For the moment however, the total number of oligarchs with property in France, as well as the total value of such properties has not been published.

The sanctions list continues to grow: now almost 900 people are on the list following the “atrocities committed in Bucha.” As the list expands, so too will the workload of the French taskforce.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

ELECTIONS

Explained: The party manifestos for France’s snap elections

As the formal campaign period begins in France's snap legislative elections, here's a look at the manifestos of the main parties and what they mean for foreigners living here.

Published: 17 June 2024 12:13 CEST
Explained: The party manifestos for France's snap elections

Monday marks the start of the official campaign period for France’s snap legislative elections – a brief two-week campaign before the first round of voting on Sunday, June 30th followed by round two a week later on July 7th. 

Here’s a look at the manifestos of the main parties, with a particular emphasis on any immigration policies that would affect the lives of foreigners in France, or those planning to move here some day.

Renaissance

First up is Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party Renaissance – its platform was unveiled by Macron himself in a televised press conference, with a more detailed programme unveiled later by prime minister Gabriel Attal.

The party is at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to the programme, since its main policy goals are already known and it is limited by financial and other factors from announcing any especially bold new goals. The result was that Macron in his launch speech was left to talk about policies that had already been announced or vague goals such as holding a ‘national debate’ on France’s secularism policy.

Macron also framed the election as a ‘battle against extremism’ saying: “I hope that when the time comes, men and women of goodwill who will have been able to say no to the extremes will come together… to build a shared, sincere project that is useful to the country.” 

Programme – Much of the programme will be familiar since Macron was after all re-elected in 2022 and set out his five-year plan at the time. On the economy and the environment, the president said that his party would continue to grow foreign investment in France, cut unemployment and work towards the ‘green reindustrialisation’ of the country – a Macron pet project to create jobs and industry in France by embracing new green technologies such as car batteries.

He also re-committed to France’s domestic nuclear energy programme, and to France’s strong support for Ukraine.

Among the new parts were a ‘great national debate’ on the tricky subject of French state secularism (laïcité) and limits to access to screens for children – as recommended by a commission of experts.

Attal also unveiled some new measures on the key issue of the cost-of-living, with promises to triple the ‘Macron bonus’ paid to some employees from €3,000 a year to €10,000, index-linking pensions to inflation, reducing utility bills by 15 percent next winter and help for parents in buying school supplies.

He also proposes axing the notaire fee (in reality a kind of tax on home purchases) for any property purchased for under €250,000 and setting up an extra renovation fund to give grants to property-owners to repairs and energy works.

Some ongoing Macronist legislation such as changing the law on assisted dying has been interrupted on its journey through parliament, but would likely restart if the party wins a majority.

The party’s programme makes no specific suggestions for changes to the immigration system, but it did just introduce a new immigration law in January that – among other things – introduces a language test requirement for certain types of residency cards and raises the language level required for French citizenship through naturalisation.

Front Populaire

France’s largest leftist political parties have struck an election pact not to stand candidates against each other – in order to avoid dividing the leftist vote.

This means that the hard-left La France Insoumise will field 229 candidates, the centre-left Parti Socialiste will field 175, the Green EELV 92 and the Communists 50. It also means that the parties are presenting a single, joint manifesto under the banner of Nouveau Front Populaire – which has been the subject of much argument and some awkward compromises.

Programme – much of the programme is concerned with cancelling recent Macronist laws. Among the laws it says it will cancel are the new immigration bill – the one that introduces French language tests for certain types of residency card and raises the language level required for French citizenship.

The manifesto also proposes introducing a 10-year carte de séjour residency card ‘as the standard card’ – at present the standard model is for one-year cards initially and then move on to five-year and then 10-year cards, although there are significant variations based on your personal status (eg working, student, retired or family member).

Also set for the chop are Macron’s changes to unemployment benefits plus a cancellation of the price rises in electricity and gas and the reintroduction of the ‘wealth tax’ scrapped by Macron in 2018. Meanwhile the pension age would be dropped down to 60 (cancelling Macron’s law raising it from 62 to 64 and dropping it another two years).

The party would also raise the Smic (minimum wage) to €1,600 a month.

The environment forms a key part of the manifesto with a range of green incentives plus tax and financing rules that would clamp down on fossil fuels.

On foreign policy there are some delicately worded compromises since views on Ukraine and Gaza had previously split the leftist alliance. The group promises to “unfailingly defend the sovereignty and freedom of the Ukrainian people” including by delivering weapons and writing off debt. On Gaza, the party would recognise the Palestinian state and embargo arms supplies to Israel.

Policy towards the EU – a topic that divides the left – is left to one side.

Rassemblement National

The far-right Rassemblement National party will be joined by at least some candidates from the right-wing Les Republicains party, although the internal party divide over that pact will see some LR candidates independently. 

Programme – the party makes immigration one of its key concerns, with a commitment to “drastically reduce legal and illegal immigration and deport foreign criminals” listed as a priority.

The programme opposes both non-economic migration and family reunification – no detail is given on changes to the visa or residency card system in this area, but it seems likely that anyone wanting to move for non-work related reasons (eg retirees) would face restrictions. Likewise spouse visas would be affected by any changes to family reunification rules.

Non-French citizens would only be able to access social benefits such as housing benefits or caring allowances after working in France for five years and there would also be a ‘French first’ preference for access to employment and social housing.

Residency permits would be withdrawn for any non-French citizens who have been unemployed for more than one year.

Asylum claims would exclusively be processed outside France.

When it comes to French citizenship, the party wants to abolish the droit du sol, which gives the right to French citizenship to children born in France to foreign parents and limit access to citizenship for adults “on the basis of merit and assimilation” – it’s not clear how this would differ from the current system where candidates must already prove that they speak French and understand French culture and politics.

The party also has a strong line on law and order – doubling the number of magistrates, increasing fines for certain offences, adding those convicted of street harassment to the sex offenders’ register and creating a “presumption of legitimate defence” for police officers who kill or injure members of the public.

This article is part of a series on election platforms in France, we will look at each party’s economic platform in a separate piece. You can follow all the latest election news in our election section HERE, and you can also sign up here to receive our bi-weekly election breakdown during the campaign period

SHOW COMMENTS