MOSCOW, March 1 US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that America and its allies continue to look for ways to use frozen Russian assets.
At the same time, as the minister admitted, some in Europe are skeptical about the confiscation of assets.
Unfriendly countries have been imposing sanctions against Russia since February 2022, as a result of which both sovereign assets and funds of private investors were frozen. The country's foreign exchange reserves were frozen in the amount of about $300 billion. Almost immediately, talk began about the confiscation of these assets by foreign countries for various purposes. In October 2022, EU leaders instructed the European Commission to prepare proposals for the use of frozen assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The Kremlin stated that making such decisions “would be another step in violating all the rules and norms of international law.” The Russian Foreign Ministry called the freezing of Russian assets in Europe theft, noting that the EU is targeting not just the funds of private individuals, but also the state assets of Russia.