Russian oligarchs launch legal attack on Belgium in bid to reclaim frozen assets

Russian oligarchs and investors have initiated legal proceedings against Belgium over financial assets blocked at Euroclear, the Brussels-based European securities depository.

The assets, frozen since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, are facing nine “notifications of dispute”, reports RTBF. 

This is the first step towards arbitration proceedings outside traditional legal channels, confirmed the Belgian ministry of Finance.

The plaintiffs are invoking old investment protection agreements that the Belgian-Luxembourg Economic Union (BLEU) signed in 1989 with the Soviet Union, and with Kazakhstan in 1998. 

This method allows them to bypass legal institutions with lawyers who, for a fee, form an “arbitration tribunal”. 

Last December, RTBF reported that oligarchs were attempting to circumvent European sanctions through arbitration proceedings against states, including Belgium. 

Of the €258 bullion that Belgium has withheld due to the sanctions, approximately €193 billion is related to blocked transactions with the Central Bank of Russia.

However, the remaining frozen assets originate from individuals and companies not subject to sanctions.

More than 200 proceedings related to the assets have already been initiated before the Council of State, Belgium’s supreme court for administrative justice. But so far they have all been rejected.

The sums involved in these nine new cases remain unknown. The Belgian ministry of finance only confirmed that Russian nationals had filed notices of dispute with Belgium. 

Photo: Euroclear in Brussels