Germany is open to using billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild, if the legal issues are resolved and allies follow suit. Bloomberg writes about this with reference to people familiar with the discussions, European Pravda reports.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government supports Ukraine's demand for war reparations, but has not yet taken an official position on arresting of Russian state assets due to differences in the ruling coalition.
If Berlin can resolve its own problems, it could give new impetus to discussions in the European Union and put pressure on the United States to arrest assets, such as central bank reserves, that were frozen in response to the Russian invasion.
According to Bloomberg, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock insists that arresting at least some of the frozen assets should be an option.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who heads the pro-business Free Democrats, is more cautious. He is concerned that confiscating the assets of the Russian central bank could set a dangerous precedent and drag European countries and their allies into a legal quagmire.
It is noted that the EU and the G7 countries have frozen about EUR 300 billion of reserves of the Russian central bank. The EU has also frozen around EUR 19 billion in assets belonging to sanctioned Russian businessmen, although these estimates are not complete. These assets are in a suspended state and cannot be distributed at this time.
Instead of an outright arrest, a more likely legal path would be to arrest the assets of individuals proven to be involved in Russian war crimes, one of the interviewees said. However, such cases can take years to go through the courts, which can reduce such an initiative to mere symbolism.
Details of the discussions show that the potential for asset arrest is moving beyond theoretical debate and into practical implementation, but serious obstacles remain. Scholz want any move to be coordinated with allies and legally clear.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Switzerland froze Russian assets worth EUR 7.2 billion.
And as of mid-November, the countries of the European Union froze EUR 68 billion of Russian assets.
It was also reported that the European Union intends to develop a plan to confiscate the frozen assets of the Russian Federation in order to direct them to the restoration of Ukraine.
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