Boris Johnson: The British Parliament will support the confiscation of Russian assets for Ukraine, but it will take time

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that his country needs to confiscate Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

He said this in an interview with "Babel".

"After these developments, I cannot even imagine that Great Britain would unfreeze and return Russian assets. This money — approximately $300 billion — will be used to rebuild Ukraine," the politician added.

In his opinion, the British Parliament will support the idea of transferring Russian assets to Ukraine, but it will take time.

"Actually, this issue is being discussed in the United States as well. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal is leading the campaign on this, and I support him. I donʼt quite understand why international lawyers are worried about the confiscation of assets, but this money will never return to Russia, so it is better to make it so that it goes to rebuilding Ukraine," Johnson emphasized.

Boris Johnson is now considering how to push the government to propose the confiscation idea to Parliament.

Who and how can transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the EU has frozen the assets of the Russian Central Bank for more than €200 billion. A significant part of these funds is kept in the Euroclear depository and has already brought almost €750 million in profit in the first quarter of 2023. In addition, the EU has frozen €24.1 billion in assets belonging to Russians and Russian companies under sanctions. Recently, the US froze $8 billion of Russian assets.

Currently, the United States and the European Union are looking for legal opportunities to use all $300 billion of frozen Russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine expects to receive $300-500 billion from such assets.

On September 7, the United States announced that for the first time it would transfer the confiscated assets of Russian oligarchs to Ukraine. Itʼs about $5.4 million, which will go to support Ukrainian veterans. After that, Estonia announced that it plans to become the first country in the EU to transfer confiscated Russian assets (€35 million) to Ukraine.