Finland escalates efforts against Russian assets with major seizures in Helsinki and beyond
Finland has commenced the confiscation of Russian state assets, with the country's enforcement authorities seizing a plot belonging to the Russian Science and Culture Center in Helsinki. The operation, reported by Helsingin Sanomat, marks a significant escalation in Finnish actions against Russian properties.
Among the seized properties is the Russian Science and Culture Center situated in the Taka-Töölö district of Helsinki. Reports also highlight the confiscation of an office building in the Lauttasaari district, as well as three properties on the Åland Islands. One of the notable assets is a seaside plot owned by Russia, located in Högsåra in Kirkkonummi, while another piece of property seized is in Siuntio.
The Lepjäranta area measures almost 8,000 square meters and was obtained by a commercial consulate of the former Soviet Union in 1973.
This development comes after a Helsinki court granted a Ukrainian state company, Naftogaz, its petition to impose a seizure on Russian assets within Finland.
Naftogaz filed its lawsuit seeking $5 billion in damages from Russia for lost assets and harm sustained in Crimea. The claim, presented last summer, arose because Russia failed to comply with a ruling from the International Arbitration Court in The Hague, which ordered compensating Naftogaz for the market value of the assets at the time of expropriation. Just last week, Finland finalized the closure of two checkpoints along its border with Russia.