London mayor calls for confiscation of Russians’ property worth US$1.4 bil

• Sadiq Khan: I urged the government to seize property assets held by allies of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, as well as setting up an effective register of overseas property beneficial ownership.

MOSCOW (Feb 26): Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, urged the UK government on Sunday to confiscate the property of Russians allegedly linked to the Kremlin to use funds from the sale to provide housing for Ukrainian refugees, reported Sputnik. 

"I urged the government to seize property assets held by allies of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, as well as setting up an effective register of overseas property beneficial ownership… New City Hall analysis reveals that if the £1.1 billion (RM6.64 billion) of property identified by Transparency International in 2022 as being bought by Russians accused of corruption or links to the Kremlin could be sold, this would provide sufficient funding for over 4,000 low-cost homes," Khan said in a letter to UK Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, published by the LBC radio.

Khan added that the United Kingdom could use funds from the sale of property to provide housing for Ukrainian refugees in London.

After the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine on Feb 24, 2022, Western and EU countries imposed comprehensive sanctions against Russia, including the freezing of nearly half of the country's foreign currency reserves.

Russia has maintained that any attempt to confiscate its frozen assets would violate international law. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week that the EU plans to seize Russian central bank assets were an "escalation of economic aggression" and warned that Moscow would respond in a harsh manner.

In December, the UK Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said the country had frozen £22.7 billion worth of Russian assets and sanctioned about 90 per cent of the Russian banking sector since February 2022.

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