Any withdrawal of Russian funds frozen in the West contradictions norms of international law – acted on Tuesday, March 7 with the relevant position. Kirill Logvinov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Union.
“No matter how much the EU consults with the G7, whatever way they try to invent to confiscate Russian assets, any “thief plan” by definition contradicts generally accepted legal norms.” DEA News.
He claims that “in fact, the legal service of the European Council has acknowledged that Russian state assets will have to be returned sooner or later, and perhaps even with interest.”
“In case they [активы] will be lost for some reason, the European Union will have to compensate for Russia’s losses out of the pockets of European taxpayers. True, it is unlikely that the latter guessed it, ”said the diplomat.
where are the assets
As the agency reported BloombergThe EU legal service has previously confirmed that no one knows where 86% of the frozen assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation are located, the total amount of which is estimated at $258 billion. Of this amount, no more than $36.4 billion was identified at this time.
The ministry said that in order to transfer Russian assets to Ukraine, you must first find them.
“Attorneys estimate that approximately $258 billion could be discovered based on information provided by Bank of Russia in 2014. [начале] In the announcement of 2022 gold and foreign exchange reserves. To date, EU countries have discovered and reported where the frozen assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation of $ 36.4 billion are located, ”the publication says.
In this regard, the legal service recommended “working with the G7 and EU international partners” to find the remainder of the frozen assets if Brussels intends to invest these funds and use them to pay the interest to Ukraine.
After disclosure, the viability of this scheme will directly depend on how much of these funds will be in the accounts of European commercial and central banks.
Remember after you start Russian special operations Western countries froze about half of the Russian Federation’s foreign exchange reserves – about $300 billion. It was also reported that assets worth €21.5 billion belonging to individuals and Russian entities were frozen.
“Deal with Moscow later”
On February 9, during the EU summit, Estonian Prime Minister Kaia Kallas offered to give Ukraine the frozen assets of the Russian Federation right now and “to settle accounts with Moscow later”.
“We definitely need a single European solution. Russia has claims in Europe as there are frozen assets. We own these assets.
Russia is destroying Ukraine, so Ukraine has claims against Russia. If we give the money we have from the assets to Ukraine, we can settle accounts with Russia later,” he explained.
previous source TASS He argued that the European Union is considering using Russian assets to restore Ukraine – we can talk about its possible investments, but not about confiscation.
In this context, according to Eurostat data, the trade turnover between Russia and the EU increased by 2.3% in 2022 and reached 258.6 billion Euros, the highest level in eight years.
Thus, goods imports from the Russian Federation to the European Union increased quarterly to 203.4 billion euros, while exports from the EU to Russia decreased by 38.1% to 55.2 billion euros, the lowest level since 2005. .
At the same time, the EU’s trade deficit with Russia reached 148.2 billion euros, double that in 2021.