The Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) has received a ruling from the Dniprovskyi District Court of Kyiv on the transfer of the Russian tanker Nika Spirit for sale. This decision was made possible by the ARMA's initiative and at the request of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

Earlier, a court decision transferred this asset to ARMA for management. In times of war, ARMA sees it expedient to focus on the sale of expensive seized assets, such as the Nika Spirit tanker, instead of searching for managers. This approach allows the state budget to be filled more quickly with funds that can be used for defense needs.

The Agency has already addressed law enforcement agencies and the National Security and Defense Council with relevant documents on the possibility of changing the mechanism for dealing with seized property. Instead of transferring individual assets to management, ARMA proposes to sell them through the Prozorro.Prodazhi electronic auction system.

Thanks to the well-established processes at Prozorro.Prodazhi, the state already receives funds from the sale of seized property on a daily basis. This successful case of the Nika Spirit tanker paves the way for large-scale and rapid revenues to the state budget in times of war.

For reference: The Nika Spirit tanker (formerly known as Neyma) was detained on July 24, 2019, in the port of Izmail. According to the international information system Equasis, the vessel with IMO number 8895528 was identified as the one used to block the Kerch Strait in November 2018.