$163 million of funds from the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund (RKDF) has been frozen in the Belgian depository Euroclear. This is 30% of the fund's capital. The Kyrgyz authorities are negotiating to unfreeze funds, but so far to no avail, the 24.kg portal reports, citing its own sources.
The funds were frozen last year in order to impose sanctions on Russian assets due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. At the moment, we are talking about the amount of $163 million. As of 2022, the capital of the RKDF was $541 million. Thus, 30% of the capital of the development institution was "stuck" in Belgium. The source of the portal shared the details of the freeze.
“The frozen money of the RKDF belonged to a Russian bank, through which funds were transferred to the fund's accounts. The amount was held in the form of bonds in one of the Belgian banks,” the source said.
At the end of June 2023, three ministers of Kyrgyzstan at once - the heads of the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice - flew to Brussels for negotiations with EU officials on the unfreezing of the assets of the RKDF. However, the issue has not yet been resolved.
"The delegation from Kyrgyzstan notified the Belgian authorities that the money is needed for projects in Kyrgyzstan. It was especially noted that the authorities guarantee the use of these funds within the state. It is not yet known when the funds will be unfrozen. Work is underway on this issue," a source told 24.kg .
In early June 2022, the European Union included the Russian National Settlement Depository in the sanctions list, which led to the blocking of its accounts in the European depositories Euroclear and Clearstream. In total, as of the end of November, according to the Bank of Russia, assets of Russian investors worth about 5.7 trillion rubles were blocked in foreign infrastructure. In addition, in February, Belgium froze Russian assets worth €58 billion. Russia-related transactions totaling €191 billion were also blocked.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
July 5, 2023