- Статьи
- Economy
- Securities are not tolerated: investors join the Central Bank's lawsuit on blocked assets
Securities are not tolerated: investors join the Central Bank's lawsuit on blocked assets
Private investors are trying to join the Central Bank's lawsuit against the Euroclear depository for assets blocked abroad, Izvestia found out. They are filing petitions as third parties — the first court session is scheduled for January 16. However, even the massive participation of private investors in the process is unlikely to bring them closer to a refund. According to experts, separate legal and governmental mechanisms are needed for this. Whether the Central Bank and the Russians have any real chances to return the funds and what difficulties the massive influx of third parties into the process creates is in the Izvestia article.
How to join the Central Bank's lawsuit against Euroclear
Investors are applying to join the Central Bank's lawsuit on blocked assets, Izvestia found out. As of January 15, 27 people have already done this, and in recent days their number has been actively growing. We are talking about private investors whose assets were blocked in the European depository Euroclear after 2022.
Interest in the case was fueled by discussions in investors' profile chats. There, a group of activists prepared a petition template in advance for the owners of the blocked funds so that they could enter the process as third parties. The Central Bank's case was described as a unique opportunity for all affected private investors to assert their rights and receive judicial protection.
The Moscow Arbitration Court is considering the Bank of Russia's lawsuit against Euroclear, and a preliminary meeting is scheduled for January 16. The Central Bank has asked for it to be held behind closed doors. The regulator demands to recover 18 trillion rubles from the Belgian depository. The Bank of Russia stated that Euroclear's actions are illegal, cause losses and deprive the Central Bank of the ability to manage assets and securities. According to the regulator, the blocking led to losses of 200.1 billion euros.
The decision to file the lawsuit was made after in December 2025, the European Union approved the freezing of Russian assets worth €210 billion for an indefinite period, without the need to extend the decision every six months. Vladimir Putin has stated that the confiscation of Russian assets would be considered theft, and Moscow has announced retaliatory measures against European countries.
Izvestia has sent requests to the Central Bank, Euroclear and the Arbitration Court about this claim.
Third parties without independent claims have the right to enter into a case when a judicial act may affect their relationship with one of the parties, the head of the international service explained. Razmorozka.com Alexey Bogdanov. To do this, the investor submits a written request to the Moscow Arbitration Court to enter into the process on the side of the Bank of Russia and explains why the decision in the case of the Central Bank may be important for his situation, usually referring to similar circumstances of asset blocking.
"However, this does not mean that the court is obliged to satisfy such petitions," the expert clarified.
The chances of allowing investors into the Central Bank's case are slim, since the lawsuit does not affect private property and it is difficult for the court to recognize its impact on the rights of players, Alexey Bogdanov noted.
Third parties do not make their own claims, cannot change the subject of the claim and do not receive a court decision in their favor, explained Evgeny Konovalov, head of the Financial Law and Capital Markets Practice at Delcredere Bar Association. Their participation is limited to stating a position and submitting documents that may be useful in future disputes. That is, the main point of trying to join the lawsuit is an attempt to assert your rights and the unfair freezing of money abroad. Because of this, it is often not worth expecting a quick unfreezing of assets in such cases.
The massive influx of third parties also creates procedural difficulties. This complicates the construction of the case and increases the time frame for its consideration, since the court will have to respond to all petitions, explained financial lawyer Olga Plekhanova.
Even if the Bank of Russia wins the case, the decision will be made in its favor and will not turn into a "common source of compensation," concluded Alexey Bogdanov. Therefore, large private investors should still build an independent legal strategy.
Why are investors joining the Central Bank's lawsuit
The assets of Russian investors are located in the Belgian jurisdiction, and they can only be "extracted" from there, explained lawyer Olga Plekhanova. However, European procedures require time, money, and high legal training. For many private investors, they are unaffordable, so they are looking for easier ways to protect their rights.
At the same time, there are a lot of investors with blocked assets in Russia — we are talking about hundreds of thousands of individuals, explained Evgeny Konovalov from Delcredere. According to various estimates, assets worth several trillion rubles or more have been blocked, and the vast majority of those affected are individuals with relatively small portfolios acquired before 2022.
It is in relation to the blocking of assets of individuals that the most questions arise from the point of view of procedural standards. In Western sanctions regimes, the freezing of assets presupposes an individual basis — inclusion in the sanctions list or direct connection with such a person.
Blocking the assets of ordinary Russian investors raises the most questions for lawyers, Evgeny Konovalov noted. Such actions definitely cannot be called targeted sanctions. Moreover, the protection of private property often has to be even stricter than the protection of state assets, so the interest of individuals in the case of the Central Bank is absolutely logical.
What should investors do with blocked assets?
It is possible to unblock assets by applying to the Belgian Ministry of Finance for an individual license and then appealing the refusal to the country's State Council, Alexey Bogdanov emphasized from Razmorozka.com . However, this implies a long and expensive legal battle in Europe.
For investors with small amounts, such processes are often economically impractical, said Evgeny Konovalov. But that doesn't mean that investors don't have ways to protect themselves. One option could be a class action lawsuit against Euroclear or Clearstream, following the example of the Central Bank, as well as relying on government measures, such as an asset repurchase mechanism, under which some of the funds have already been returned within Russia.
In 2024, there was already a centralized exchange of blocked assets between Russians and foreigners, explained Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global. At the first stage, foreign investors bought securities for 8.1 billion rubles out of the proposed 35 billion, at the second stage — for another 2.5 billion.
However, at that time, investors managed to compensate on average about 25% of the amounts up to 100 thousand rubles, which is only a small fraction of the total amount of blocked assets of individuals, said Dmitry Lesnov, Deputy General Director for brokerage at Finam.
It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of this option: not all securities were bought, but the Central Bank and market participants did their best, Natalia Milchakova noted. Theoretically, the mechanism can be resumed, but this is not being done due to fears of low demand - some investors are waiting for the sanctions to be lifted, while others doubt a solution without political interference. At the same time, compensation will be only partial, and money does not completely replace the security itself, especially foreign currency.
Investors have a chance to unfreeze assets, but they depend not so much on the courts as on political and legal agreements and exchange mechanisms that are gradually developing, Evgeny Konovalov concluded. At the same time, the return of funds is extremely important for restoring retail investors' confidence in the market, Dmitry Lesnov emphasized.
At the same time, the Bank of Russia is highly likely to win a lawsuit against Euroclear, according to politicians and experts interviewed by Izvestia. It is not certain that this will lead to a refund. However, the Central Bank is considering the possibility of further defending its interests in international courts.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
