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MOSCOW, March 21 The G7 countries are considering the possibility of using their frozen Russian assets, expressed in cash and bonds, in favor of Ukraine, the Guardian newspaper writes, citing a source.
Earlier, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that he had submitted to the EU countries his proposal to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets for military assistance to Ukraine. In response to this, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russia will use all judicial mechanisms and will choose other methods to respond to the European Union (EU) in order to prevent them from using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.
«One source said some G7 members have already gone beyond the EU and are considering capitalizing on Russian assets, which include gold, cash and bonds. frozen in these countries,” the newspaper writes, despite the fact that the Bank of Russia previously stated that all the gold from Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves is located on the territory of the Russian Federation.
As the newspaper notes, the main concern of the G7 leaders is the prospect that international courts will order the return of all the money to Russia, “which will damage Europe’s reputation as a safe haven for investors.”
After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze almost half of Russian foreign exchange reserves amounting to about 300 billion euros. About 200 billion euros are in the EU, mainly in the accounts of the Belgian Euroclear — one of the world's largest settlement and clearing systems. The EU is discussing ways to use frozen assets of the Russian Federation to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The European Central Bank warned that this could pose reputational risks for the European currency in the long term, and called for “looking beyond this isolated conflict” and looking for other ways to finance Kyiv. 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.
Earlier, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that since 2022, unfriendly Western countries have been imposing sanctions against Russia, its citizens and organizations, and the EU and other Western countries are actively working to create legal conditions for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets, introducing external control over subsidiaries of Russian companies, the property rights of Russian legal entities and individuals are illegally deprived or limited.
Russia will be responsible in case of confiscation of frozen Russian assets in the West, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later said. He added that the Russian Federation “also has the opportunity not to return those funds that Western countries kept in Russia and which were frozen in response to the seizure of Russian state reserves; there can be no doubt that we will act mutually.”