More Russian money has been frozen than was reported by Finance Minister Kaag at the beginning of this week. She wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives that 6 million euros in Russian assets have been frozen in the Netherlands. According to the president of De Nederlandsche Bank, Klaas Knot, it now amounts to 200 million euros. He announced that in news hour.
Knot says the difference is so big because not all of the asset freezes had passed yet. The amount of 6 million raised questions, because a country like Belgium, for example, has already frozen 10 billion euros. Knot does not expect that we will reach such an amount in the Netherlands. “That comparison with Belgium is not entirely fair. Belgium plays a much larger role in international payment transactions.”
In the Netherlands, most ties with Russia are conducted through a trust office. “That is an administrative office, but the assets are simply not located in the Netherlands. There is little to freeze.”
Trust offices are being forced to stop providing financial services to Russian customers, however, about a hundred reports have now been received from trust offices. But that doesn’t yield “spectacular amounts,” Knot says.
–
