Finland Seizes Russian Diplomats' Beach

The Finnish court has ordered to confiscate frozen Russian assets for the first time.

Finnish authorities have seized a stretch of beach belonging to the Russian state and used for the recreation of diplomats. This is reported by the Yleh television and radio company.

According to the land registry, this plot in Heggesbila in southern Finland includes 17 hectares of land and three and a half hectares of sea areas. A bailiff seized it on October 24, the report said.

On the eve it became known that the land plot of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture was seized in Finland on the claim of the Ukrainian Naftogaz company. The Finnish authorities arrested the building of the centre and a plot of land with an area of more than three thousand square metres on the basis of a decision issued by the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague in April 2023.

According to the newspaper of Helsingin Sanomat, in addition to the Russian Centre for Science and Culture, the Finnish state has confiscated at least four other properties in Helsinki and the Åland Islands belonging to Russians, including a residential house.

Thus, this is the first time a Finnish court has ordered the confiscation of frozen Russian assets, Helsingin Sanomat notes.

‘Naftogaz’ filed a lawsuit for five billion dollars against Russia for losses and property lost by the company in the annexed Crimea last summer. The basis for the lawsuit was the decision of the arbitration court in The Hague. It ordered Moscow to pay the Ukrainian company compensation, the amount of which should correspond to the market value of Naftogaz's assets in Crimea.

The Kremlin previously said it would study the ruling of the Hague court. In 2019, the Russian Justice Ministry said that Moscow does not recognise the jurisdiction of the arbitration in The Hague on the issue of Naftogaz compensation.

The Russian embassy in Finland said the day before that the Russian authorities had not received any official notifications from the Finnish authorities regarding the seizure of Russian property.

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