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The Netherlands wants new sanctions against Russia, how are things going so far?

NOS

News from the NOStoday, 12:29

  • Real Police

    economics editor

  • Real Police

    economics editor

With the partial mobilization in Russia, the war in Ukraine is a new phase inserted. Within the EU there is a vote for a new eighth sanctions package. The Netherlands is also in favor of more sanctions.

What about the application of the sanctions announced since February? And what does that mean for business?

“The application of sanctions will continue,” a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Assets are also still frozen, for example when new people are added to the sanctions list, as happened in July. On September 14, the funds were frozen for the last time.

Hundreds of millions

It is not entirely clear how much money is involved. The government will release new figures in October. The most recent overview is from July. At that time the banks had blocked transactions worth 574 million euros. Together with the trustees, they also froze around 640 million euros of assets.

In the case of insurers and pension funds, the amounts involved are very small. The insurers withheld € 358 of benefits. Pension funds 2391 euros.

Customs

Most of the work is done at customs. “For example, we look at all the declarations of hauliers who want to export goods to Russia and Belarus. And we look at the reserve countries to see if the sanctions are not circumvented,” says a spokesman. Customs won’t tell which countries they are.

There are still physical checks on containers, mailing bags and packages. “But unless at the beginning, the trade flows have dried up a bit”. In total, customs checked nearly 200,000 export declarations, scanned around 12,000 postal bags and opened nearly 3,000 packages. The proceeds: a shipment frozen for violation of sanctions.

Customs also keep an eye on planes and ships. There are five “frozen” aircraft owned by a sanctioned airline at Maastricht and Enschede airports. Together they are worth between 350 and 400 million euros.

NOS

Cargo and baggage traveling to Russia are examined at Schiphol

The same goes for two boats smaller than a sanctioned Russian, which were in the Netherlands for maintenance. Together, the boats are worth a million. Customs is also monitoring 24 other ships that cannot be delivered to their Russian owners. Most of the ships are still under construction.

The superyacht with the construction title Feadship1010 could be one of them. The 118-meter-long motor ship is almost completed and will be docked at Coenhaven in Amsterdam for sea trials. Sources of yacht building link the ship to a Russian billionaire who would like to name the ship Katyusha.

Builder Feadship does not want to confirm that he is a Russian customer. “There was also speculation in the market that Andrea Tate the customer would be, isn’t it. We also never make any statements about the origin of our customers, “says marketing director Farouk Nefzi.” But of course we respect all legislation, including sanctions legislation. “

Frederiek Stroop van Renen

The ship Feadship1010 en route to Amsterdam

Nefzi would not say if Feadship has other existing Russian customers that it cannot supply at the moment. “There’s not much demand out there,” he says. In a general sense, he adds: “We are unique yacht builders. Generally they are pre-financed, which reduces the risks for us.”

D66 MP Sjoerd Sjoerdsma asked Minister Hoekstra for clarification on the ship in the port of Amsterdam. “It would be crazy if a luxury yacht were now being worked on in the Netherlands with final destination Russia. This goes against sanctions and still raises questions about enforcement.”

Not only superyachts cannot be exported to Russia. Damen Shipyards, for example, has received a number of tugboat orders from Russia. “The financial risk we face as a result of the sanctions is substantial,” a Damen spokesperson said. “We are now considering whether we can dissolve the contracts. If we can deliver the boats to someone else, the damage is not serious.”

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