According to a newspaper report, almost 143 million euros in assets belonging to Russian oligarchs in German accounts have been frozen since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As of May 23, a total of EUR 142,990,409.35 has been confiscated from Russian companies and institutions under EU law, reports the newspaper “Bild”, citing information from the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Accordingly, the value of confiscated assets at the end of February shortly after the start of the war was 342,000 euros. By March 21, German financial institutions reported to the Bundesbank that around 95 million oligarchs were frozen.

According to a newspaper report, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) have agreed on criteria for the admission of Kremlin critics from Russia who are particularly at risk. The newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe” report that the endangered groups of people will be helped faster and less bureaucratically with a residence permit to flee Russia. After a case study, they receive permission for a longer stay in Germany and not, as in the past, only a limited Schengen visa for a maximum of 90 days. According to the report, the groups of people at risk include human rights defenders threatened by political persecution, members of the opposition, employees of human rights organizations and scientists, but also journalists who are specifically endangered.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described the capture of eastern Ukraine’s Donbass as an “unconditional priority”. It is about pushing the Ukrainian army and battalions out of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Moscow recognizes as independent states, Lavrov said in an interview with the French broadcaster TF1, according to the Russian foreign ministry. The ministry published the answers on Sunday on its website.

In other areas of Ukraine where Russia is conducting a “military operation,” residents themselves must decide their future, Lavrov said. On the other hand, the government in Kyiv expects that there could be a controlled referendum in the Ukrainian region of Cherson on the proclamation of a “people’s republic” based on the model of the pro-Russian separatist areas of Luhansk and Donetsk.