Damage from the Nord Stream incident can be recovered from the funds of foreign companies located in Russia, said State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin. Experts told the “Company” how these actions are legal and what the Russian Federation can expect if such measures are taken.
Impossible is possible
During the plenary session of the Duma on Thursday, February 16, Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called on deputies to calculate the damage caused to Russia from explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. The parliamentarian noted that funds from other countries, foreign companies and shareholders are in the Russian Federation in large volumes, and suggested using them to compensate for damages.
“Let’s take it, calculate what damage, we will discuss it with you, present it, because if someone thinks (that) it is impossible to recover, it is not so,” Volodin said. As soon as Russian funds are withdrawn abroad in any way, Moscow will have every right to apply the mirror principle, the deputy believes.
Different parts of the pipeline are in the area of responsibility of one or another operating company, which is responsible for the maintenance and safety of the facility. From a legal point of view, it is possible to recover damages only from these companies. The conditional Coca-Cola has nothing to do with the operation of the gas pipeline, Vyacheslav Leontiev, managing partner of the law office Leontiev and Partners, explained in a conversation with the Company.
Political scientist Natalia Eliseeva has a different opinion. “We stopped living in the legal field a long time ago. Everything that the West is doing in relation to Russia does not apply either to law or to law, ”she said in an interview with Kompaniya.
According to her, it is possible to recover funds from unfriendly states and enterprises registered in them that continue their activities in Russia. The only question is how it will be implemented in practice. “The initiative is not bad, because someone has to pay for it,” the expert concluded.
When asked about the possible consequences for the Russian Federation if a decision is made to confiscate foreign assets, Eliseeva replied: “There will be no consequences for Russia, new sanctions are already being introduced.”
Where’s the money?
Over the past months, Western countries have been actively discussing the terms of transferring Russia’s frozen assets to Kyiv, including funds from the Central Bank and sanctioned individuals and companies.
On Wednesday, February 15, the EU approved the creation of a special working group on the use of blocked Russian assets in the interests of Ukraine. She will have to consider how to resolve the issue legally, as well as determine what kind of assets are in the EU.
According to the latest information, Europe has data on only $36.4 billion of all Russian assets blocked in the region. At the same time, their total amount in European accounts is estimated at 258 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, the Swiss Ministry of Justice did not find legal grounds for the confiscation of private Russian assets, pointing out that this is contrary to the Constitution and the existing legal order.
Earlier, the European Commissioner for Justice and the Rule of Law, Didier Reynders, proposed to freeze the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Federation as collateral until Moscow directs funds on its own to restore Ukraine.
An alternative way would be to create a pooled fund with frozen Russian assets, whose investment income would later be transferred to the reconstruction of Ukraine. Such a proposal was put forward in November 2022 by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
“Now no one says that our property will be taken and confiscated forever. This is an important point,” emphasizes lawyer Vyacheslav Leontiev.
There were eight
The day before, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh gave an interview to the German publication Berliner Zeitung, in which he stated that only six out of eight bombs exploded under Nord Stream. According to him, the rest of the shells did not come into action, because they lay under water for too long.
Earlier, Hersh published an investigation, according to which the attacks on gas pipelines were planned by the CIA and the US government with the support of Norway. It said that US Navy divers planted the explosives under the gas pipelines.
White House spokeswoman Adrienne Watson called Hersh’s publication “a lie and a complete fabrication.” A similar comment came from CIA officer Tammy Thorpe. The journalist’s claims cannot be verified, the data was provided by an anonymous source.
Explosions at Nord Stream occurred at the end of September last year. Destruction was recorded on both strings of the first and one string of the second gas pipeline. Denmark, Sweden and Germany were the first to investigate the incident.
In February 2023, German Prosecutor General Peter Frank said that German investigators could not find evidence of Moscow’s involvement in explosions on gas pipelines. Berlin does not rule out the possibility that one of the Western countries could be behind the incident.
