The Ministry of Justice explained how recognizing Russia as a terrorist state can harm Ukraine

In an interview with LIGA.net, the Deputy Minister of Justice, Iryna Mudra, stated that recognizing Russia as a terrorist state in the US would make it impossible to transfer funds from confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine.

"After the adoption of the corresponding document in the USA, American citizens, military and government representatives will be able to apply for the money first of all. There will be thousands of lawsuits from American citizens who suffered from the Russian war in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine — and the confiscated funds of the Russian Federation should go primarily to the satisfaction of such lawsuits," she explained.

According to Mudra, in such a situation, the question is — would the moral justice of recognizing the Russian Federation as a terrorist state be an equal for financial losses for our country?

"Moreover, the recognition of the Russian Federation as a terrorist state does not have the same consequences for the Russian Federation in Europe. The EU, apparently, will never take such a step. Therefore, as a lawyer, I would rather consider options for strengthening sanctions so that the legal consequences of them are similar to the status of a state sponsoring terrorism," explained the deputy minister.

The Ministry of Justice estimated that $350 billion of funds of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation were blocked in various jurisdictions. The leading countries are the USA (about $50 billion), France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and China.

"There is also the property of private individuals — Russian rich people and oligarchs. According to information from open sources, there are still hundreds of billions of dollars in different countries. But here it is more difficult — there is no general register with a list of all seized property of Russians in each country, we have to wait for the countries to confiscate this property, sell it and transfer the funds to Ukraine," says the deputy minister.

"No one in the world was prepared for such a cynical violation of international law by Russia, and therefore neither Ukraine nor other states had appropriate legal mechanisms to confiscate property belonging to other states," added Iryna Mudra.

According to her, secondary sanctions can be imposed on countries that help the Russian Federation to circumvent sanctions, a complete ban on the supply of equipment can be introduced (the USA has achieved), control over the export of dual-use goods (the USA has implemented), a prohibition on any transactions with Russia, including a complete prohibition on all Russian financial institutions — here we have a tough conflict with Europe.

• On July 31, the lower house of the US Congress presented a bill on recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. The Senate has already passed such a resolution, but the final word rests with the US State Department. Currently, the list of countries sponsoring terrorism includes four states: Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria.