The EU may agree on the transfer of the frozen assets of the Russian Federation to Ukraine in the near future

The European Union (EU) is close to agreeing on a plan to transfer frozen assets to Russia to rebuild Ukraine, informed CNBC channel.

“We had quite lengthy discussions. [об использовании замороженных активов РФ] <...> now, I hope, we can soon come up with ideas on how to use at least the proceeds from these immobilized assets,” said Anders Anlid, a Swedish diplomat who leads a task force to analyze the conditions for using the frozen assets of the Russian Federation. It is specified that now the EU is initially considering the use of the assets of the Bank of Russia.

At the end of March, the newspaper Politico wrotethat the return on investment of Russia’s frozen assets is expected by the European Commission (EU) to be 2.6%. According to the publication, the EU can direct the profit received from investments to finance the restoration of Ukraine. Then Anlid told the newspaper that the EU agreed that their actions would have to comply with EU and international law.

At the same time, in the event of the termination of anti-Russian sanctions, the owner of the frozen assets should be able to return the capital, as well as any income that was agreed upon in the agreement. However, according to the EC, profits in excess of a certain amount can be appropriated.

After the start of the military operation in Ukraine, Western countries blocked 300 billion euros of reserves of the Central Bank of Russia and 19 billion euros of private funds of Russian businessmen, said in November 2022 the head of the European Commission (EC) 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. The EC said that the blocked funds should be pooled into a fund, the funds of which should be invested, and the profits from these investments should be used for compensatory payments to Ukraine.

The Kremlin called the freezing of Russian assets theft. At the end of October last year, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that the blocking of assets abroad is contrary to international law. President Vladimir Putin himself spoke in a similar way. He noted that the theft of other people’s assets never brought to good – especially those who do it.