Six countries blocked the most Russian assets after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including three EU countries. EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders.

According to him, Germany, France, Ireland, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg have frozen Russian assets worth 13.9 billion euros ($14 billion)..

“There are six Member States that are doing this work,” he said.. “We have a situation where some member states give us a lot of information, others give us information about very small amounts,” and “it becomes more difficult when some countries do not communicate,” he said, according to Bloomberg..

On Friday, the EU proposed a new set of sanctions against Russia and actions to tighten existing sanctions packages. The block is also working to expand the powers of EU countries to confiscate criminal assets, including those belonging to Russian individuals and legal entities under sanctions, by expanding the list of crimes such as money laundering and corruption by including violations in EU sanctions..

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In March, the EU created a new 'freeze and confiscate' task force to improve coordination. This allows for regular exchanges and meetings, Reynders said, and has already contributed to a “significant increase” in asset freezes in some countries..

The problem remains that “sometimes we don’t get a response, even if we have this target group where everyone is present, or we receive small amounts compared to the size of the country,” he said..

Reynders is looking for new EU rules that would make it easier not only to freeze, but also to seize assets. According to him, for this there must be a connection with the crime.. “Now I have asked that consideration be given to updating the existing rules to include the violation of sanctions as a crime,” he said..

According to him, the European Parliament supported him, and after the summer, the governments of member countries will follow his example..

“This will allow us to release the rules in October,” he said..

Earlier it was reported that the United States created a special body to search for the assets of Russian oligarchs and freeze them..