VVD veteran Blok becomes national coordinator for sanctions against Russia | Inland

Last Friday, Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) announced the arrival of a national coordinator. That happened a day after Hoekstra came under heavy fire in the House of Representatives about the implementation of the sanctions. Hoekstra could not say what exactly happened to ensure that Russians on the sanction list are dealt with.

“Really embarrassing,” said GL leader Jesse Klaver. According to MP Pieter Omtzigt, the Netherlands had already given the Russian oligarchs more than a month to move their assets and belongings away from the Netherlands. “I don’t know if the government realizes how bad it is,” said Omtzigt.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday that the Netherlands is “not doing so much worse” than France or Belgium, but that the national coordinator is being appointed because “we want to be sure that we don’t miss anything”. Eight ministries in the Netherlands are involved in the sanctions. Although Hoekstra is a ‘coordinating minister’, he decided to appoint a coordinator himself.

‘great weight’

Hoekstra talked about ‘someone with great weight’ on Friday. He already had the person in mind then, but wanted to wait until Monday to announce the name. “Every time there is a problem, the coordinator must ensure that a solution is found as quickly as possible,” said Hoekstra. “You don’t want to miss a day.”

Blok was a minister in the Rutte cabinets for almost ten years. He started in 2012 as Minister for Housing. In 2017 he was Minister of Security and Justice, to become Minister of Foreign Affairs a year later. In 2021 he became Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate. He regularly replaced departing ministers. Blok knows most ministries like the back of his hand. Of the eight ministries that are now involved in the sanctions against Russia, Blok has been at the helm of no fewer than four.

bank balances

On Friday, not everyone was enthusiastic about the arrival of a sanctions coordinator. “We already had a working group, committees and a task force,” Omtzigt tweeted on Friday. “So this is part of it!”

Until last Thursday, 516 million euros in Russian bank balances in the Netherlands had been frozen. But Russian real estate – such as houses, yachts and paintings – has not yet been seized. Services such as the Land Registry and other authorities have to get to work with this.

Also listen to The Ukraine Update about how the Netherlandsrenounce’ with sanctions against Russia:

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