Poland Mulls ‘Freeze and Seize’ of Russian-Owned Property

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks during a press conference at the end of the second day of a European Union leaders meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 22, 2021. (John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called for Russian-owned properties in Poland to be frozen and confiscated as part of the Western sanctions response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Many countries have imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow, targeting banks and trade, and seizing assets like Russian oligarchs’ luxury yachts.

Italy has seized property belonging to close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, such as Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov’s villa on the island of Sardinia and Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko’s $578 million superyacht.

Morawiecki told Polish media Wprost in an interview Sunday that “more and more Poles don’t understand why, if Italians confiscate the yachts of Russian oligarchs, we can’t do the same in our country.”

“We want to raise the issue of how Poland could freeze and confiscate Russian assets in our country,” Morawiecki continued, while noting that there are constitutional limitations on actions related to property rights and so laws would need to be passed to enable such seizures.

While acknowledging that are no Russian yachts in Poland to confiscate, Morawiecki said “there is some real estate, and financial assets, the shares in companies that we should seize.”

Morawiecki’s ruling Law and Justice party is “strongly in favor” of such confiscations, he said, while calling for support from opposition lawmakers to pass relevant laws.

The United States and its allies recently established an international task force to go after Russian assets, known as the Russian Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force.

The European Commission launched a complementary EU-level body called the “Freeze and Seize” Task Force to implement sanctions against listed Russian and Belarusian oligarchs and, where national laws allow it, confiscate their assets.

As of March 17, there were 877 individuals and 62 entities that were subject to an asset freeze under EU sanctions in context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The focus of our work is to stop money flowing to the Russian war machine. Wealthy oligarchs supporting the Russian war machine need to know that they will not find any safe haven in the EU or elsewhere,” said Mairead McGuinness, Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and the Capital Markets Union, in a statement on ”Freeze and Seize” task force enforcement.

So far, the EU has focused its sanctions on banks and oligarchs, while banning Russian aircraft from EU airspace and halting technology exports.

But some EU countries are pressing for a Russian energy embargo, though there’s division among the 27 EU member states in this regard.

Germany and Hungary are among those opposed to a fossil fuel embargo, fearing this would hurt their economies and push soaring energy prices higher.

Currently, the EU is looking to phase out the bloc’s dependency on Russian fossil fuels within five years.

Morawiecki urged more decisive action to cut off Russian energy supplies.

“I appeal to the German, the French, and Benelux elites to put aside their calculators and start using their consciences. Because if we’re calculating the cost of gas and oil, it means we’re dealing in the blood of Ukrainian children, women, and soldiers,” he told Wprost.

The United States has said it would ban all Russian energy imports.