Data provided by Italian authorities shows that Italy has frozen Russian assets worth around 2.3 billion euro ($2.64 billion), with the latest seizures taking place at the beginning this month.

Italy has seized bank accounts, yachts, luxury villas and cars as part of sanctions imposed by the European Union against the Kremlin.

The Bank of Italy said that by the end of 2023, their value would be 2.5 billion dollars.

It did not provide an update on the total, but stated that the funds frozen as a result of sanctions against Russia will total almost 280 millions euros by December 2024. This is a 44-million euro increase over the previous year.

Separately the tax police seizes in early June, an Iranian company located in Milan, Irital Shipping Lines and two of its assets worth more than one million euros. This is due to "Iran’s military support for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine".

The company has yet to respond to an email from requesting a comment.

MAINTENANCE FEES

The Italian government is responsible for managing the assets that are frozen as a result of EU sanctions.

According to the most recent official data, the State's costs for maintenance of these facilities amounted up to February 2024 to 31.75 million euros.

The agency refused to provide any information on the maintenance costs incurred so far by Italian taxpayers, stating that the "official secrecy" prevented them from doing so. Calculations suggest that maintenance costs have risen by 15 million euro to 45 million euros.

These assets are in the hands of the European Union.

If the EU decides that the frozen goods are to be permanent, then the state will have to initiate the confiscation process.

If Brussels decides that the assets should be unfrozen, they can be returned to the owners provided Italy pays the maintenance costs. (1 dollar = 0.8719 euro) (Reporting and editing by Giselda Vasgnoni, Alex Richardson).

(source: Reuters)