Friedman demands $15.8bn from Luxembourg
22 May 2024 13:25
Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman has offered the Luxembourg government to start “peaceful negotiations” on compensation for his assets frozen by the country. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Russian media.
Friedman considers the freezing of his assets by Luxembourg as part of the implementation of EU sanctions to be illegal expropriation.
The oligarch is demanding that Luxembourg pay $15.8bn in compensation, which is the total value of his frozen assets in the country. This estimate is approximate, as sanctions prevent Friedman from engaging EU valuation experts, and his Luxembourg companies are prohibited from sharing any financial information with him.
Friedman’s lawyers sent a proposal to the Luxembourg authorities back in February, but have not yet received a response. If they refuse, the oligarch intends to file a lawsuit in international arbitration.
As reported by 
, the EU has agreed to transfer interest on frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, but the G7 countries are no longer considering the possibility of full confiscation of frozen Russian assets.
Russian money abroad
Around €260bn of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation’s assets have been frozen in the form of securities and cash in the jurisdictions of the G7, the EU and Australia, with more than two-thirds of them frozen in the EU.
belgium controls €190bn of assets in euros, the US controls assets worth between $40bn and $60bn, and the UK controls around £25bn.
As for the funds of individuals, the Atlantic Council, a US think tank, claimed at the beginning of the full-scale war that Russians had about $1 trillion of dark money abroad. According to a 2020 report, a quarter of this amount is controlled by Putin and his oligarchs.
