Cyprus behind on freezing Russian assets, EU official says

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
Associated Press

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The European Union’s commissioner for justice says the bloc’s executive arm wants to delve deeper into why Cyprus has only frozen 100 million euros worth of assets belonging to Russians facing sanctions amid the war in Ukraine. European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders told reporters Thursday that compared with other EU member states which have each frozen as much as 2 billion to 4 billion euros worth of Russian assets, Cyprus’ reported sum “seems to be a little low.” He says the EU wants to review sanctions enforcement given the large amount of Russian investments in the east Mediterranean island nation. Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides has pledged to crack down on any sanction breaches.