A court in Prague has upheld sanctions against the assets of a Russian company

The Prague Municipal Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Russian company challenging the freezing of funds in a bank account in the Czech Republic. The decision was made after the company was added to the Czech Republic’s sanctions list. The court upheld the freeze on its assets.

This was reported by Novinky.

The company manages and operates numerous real estate properties in the Czech Republic that belong to Russia. Courts have previously rejected its lawsuits regarding specific real estate properties. In the lawsuit currently under consideration, the company objected to the freezing of its account at Raiffeisen Bank.

In its ruling, the Municipal Court emphasized that international sanctions must be effective. According to the court’s assessment, the main reason for including the company on the sanctions list is that it is a state-owned enterprise of the Russian Federation and engages in so-called punitive actions, as Russia may benefit from its activities.

The decision to add the company to the sanctions list was made by the government of then-Prime Minister Petr Fiala in November 2023. The reason was the suspicion that the company provides material and financial support to the Russian government and operates in sectors that generate significant revenue for it. The decision effectively froze the agency’s bank accounts and placed a lien on the property managed by the company in the real estate registry to prevent its sale.

The company filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court regarding its inclusion on the sanctions list, which was rejected last December.

The government repealed nine decrees from the 1970s and 1980s that had granted the then-Soviet Union land for free use for diplomatic purposes. The land for which the Czech state is again demanding rent from Russia includes a complex of apartment buildings on Švejgerova Street in Prague and the buildings of the former Russian consulates general in Karlovy Vary and Brno (in total, Russia owned about 70 properties in the Czech Republic).