After Russia seized Crimea and unleashed the war in the Donbas in 2014, the Italian Danieli Group grew to become a major player in the Russian steel industry, the engine of Putin’s war machine. Danieli, which sells and services equipment for steel plants, has since worked with at least 14 Russian metal companies, including six that contribute to the Russian military industry. Danieli didn’t leave the Russian market when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has supplied equipment to at least one Russian steel plant since then.
Russian multinationals that are still not subject to European sanctions and still have active subsidiaries in the Netherlands are recruiting and paying mercenaries to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine. Trouw and Investico report this based on research by IStories, an independent Russian journalist collective.
Banks and other financial institutions in the Netherlands have performed significantly below expectations when it comes to freezing assets as required by the sanctions lists released following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Roughly one third of Dutch financial firms are unable to track down and freeze the assets, Nieuwsuur reported based on an investigation conducted by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the central bank of the Netherlands.