European Commission (EC) supports Estonia's intention to proceed with confiscation of Russian financial assets without waiting for other EU countries, EC spokesman Christian Wiegand said at a briefing in Brussels on Thursday.

According to him, the European Commission does not know yet which legal way the Estonian authorities will choose for this purpose. However, in his opinion, these actions are in line with the direction of efforts of the European Commission, which on December 2, 2022, proposed to introduce criminal liability in the EU for circumventing sanctions against Russia, which should accelerate the process of confiscation of Russian assets by countries of the community.

Estonian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mihkel Tamm said earlier that the legislative framework would be in place by the end of January. The country's government tasked ministries back in late December to develop an asset confiscation plan.

According to Bloomberg's estimates, Estonia has about €20 million in frozen funds of Russians.