G7 countries refused to return assets to Russia without compensation to Ukraine

Russia will not receive assets blocked in other countries until it agrees to pay compensation to Ukraine. About it it says in a joint statement by the G7 foreign ministers following a two-day meeting in Tokyo.

“In accordance with our legal systems, Russian sovereign assets in our jurisdictions will remain frozen until Russia compensates for the damage caused to Ukraine,” the statement said.

After the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, Western countries introduced large-scale sanctions against the Russian Federation, freezing Russian assets abroad, and began to discuss the possibility of transferring assets to Ukraine. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov reported in March 2022 that the Russian Federation had lost access to half of the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Bank of Russia – about $300 billion. According to the European Commission, EU countries blocked about 200 billion euros of Central Bank assets.

November 7, Foreign Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives supported a bill on the transfer of part of confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine. The Kremlin said that the possible transfer of Russian assets to Ukraine is illegal. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov emphasizedthat the Russian side will challenge such steps, and warned that this “will entail very serious judicial and legal costs for those who make such decisions and who take advantage of such decisions.”

Previously, Russian authorities have repeatedly called the freezing of Russian assets theft and a violation of international law.