ROME – Italian banks were instructed by the Bank of Italy’s financial intelligence division on Friday to urgently let it know of all measures taken to freeze the assets of people and entities targeted by sanctions against Russia.
Western allies have moved to isolate Russia’s economy and financial system since its invasion of Ukraine, including sanctioning its central bank and oligarchs who amassed fortunes and political influence under Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Bank of Italy division, known as UIF, said in a statement that all notifications from banks had to give details of the subjects involved and the value and nature of the assets, and to be sent “as soon as possible”.
Its request comes after the Italian Treasury’s financial security committee met on Thursday to review what had already been done as well as the planned actions to freeze the assets, the finance ministry said in a separate statement.
The Treasury added the committee had intensified activities to ensure the effectiveness of the sanctions, which apply to both real estate and financial resources.
French authorities said on Thursday they had seized four cargo vessels and a luxury yacht linked to oligarchs, while in Germany a nearly $600 million palatial pleasure craft owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, also on the EU’s sanctions list, was sitting in a Hamburg shipyard.
Uzbekistan-born metals and telecoms tycoon Usmanov is well known in Italy for owning properties on the island of Sardinia.
Mirko Idili, a coordinator of the CISL union in Sardinia, said sanctions and a reduced presence of rich Russians could negatively affect the island’s economy and put more than 1,000 jobs at risk.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome and Federico Maccioni in Milan, Editing by William Maclean and Alexander Smith)
