The ambassador announced the plans of Britain to confiscate the frozen Russian assets

The UK is preparing to confiscate frozen Russian assets. About this in an interview with RIA Novosti informed Russian Ambassador to London Andrey Kelin.

“There are assets, there is movement in this direction. Now I can’t fix such cases yet, but the preparation of some kind of legislation that would move in this direction is really going on, ”he said.

Kelin emphasized the illegality of such actions and recalled that in Western countries “there are no laws on this matter.” According to him, now the European Union and Washington are engaged in the “invention” of such norms.

After the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, Western countries blocked 300 billion euros of reserves of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and 19 billion euros of private funds of Russian businessmen, said in November 2022 the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. According to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Russia has lost access to half of its gold and foreign exchange reserves – about $300 billion.

Western countries have repeatedly expressed their desire to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. In particular, Ursula von der Leyen suggested create a structure for managing Russian assets. Later it became known that the EU considers the possibility of using the assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to restore Ukraine. The source clarified that we are talking about investment, not confiscation.

Also in February 2023, opposition Labor MP Chris Bryant drafted a bill to confiscate frozen Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine as financial aid. February 8 British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declaredthat London is working with international partners on the legal side of the seizure of blocked Russian assets in favor of Ukraine.