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Moscow has reacted strongly to Helsinki’s seizing of Russian property last week by summoning Finland’s ambassador in Russia on Wednesday and sending diplomatic notes, Finland’s foreign affairs ministry told AFP.
The Finnish National Enforcement Authority — an agency under the justice ministry responsible for statutory enforcement duties — seized several Russian state-owned properties in Finland last week following a court decision issued by the District Court of Helsinki in August.
The order to seize Russian property in Finland came after a tribunal in the Hague in 2023 had ruled that Russia needs to pay a sum of more than five billion euros to the Ukrainan oil and gas company Naftogaz to compensate for the company’s financial losses during the Crimean annexation in 2014 — a sum Moscow has yet to pay.
Strongly protesting the seizures, Moscow summoned Finland’s ambassador in Russia on Wednesday.
In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry demanded Finland to reconsider the decision and said, “if necessary, the Russian side will take retaliatory measures”.
Finland’s foreign affairs ministry told AFP they had received two diplomatic notes as well as phone calls from the Russian embassy this week.
“They have asked for more information about the measures taken by the Enforcement Agency”, the ministry said.
Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday reported 44 Russian properties across the country with a total value of more than 35 million euros had been seized by the Finnish authorities on October 24.
Naftogaz said in a statement on Monday that “Russia has refused to pay Naftogaz the amount due” and that it had therefore “launched an international enforcement effort, seeking to enforce the award in countries where Russia holds assets”.
It was the first “publicly known successful asset freeze outside Ukraine” linked to lawsuits filed by Ukrainian companies against Russian expropriation of property in Crimea in 2014, Naftogaz said.
ank/giv