The United States, Great Britain, Japan and Canada suggested that other G7 countries prepare plans to confiscate Russian assets.
The Financial Times (FT) writes about it.
Western countries have frozen the assets of the Russian Central Bank in the amount of $300 billion.
According to the plans proposed by the four countries, the G7 should create three working groups to study the legal basis of confiscation, the actual method and risks of confiscation, as well as the possibility of transferring confiscated assets to Ukraine.
An official decision in favor of confiscation has not yet been made, but Washington believes that advance planning will help to quickly implement them in the event of agreement.
The next meeting of the G7 heads of state will take place at the end of February, and they want to agree on a specific plan by the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine — February 24, 2024, writes the FT.
Germany, France, Italy and the EU have so far expressed caution regarding the confiscation of Russian assets. Several European ministers stressed the need to keep the discussions secret and carefully consider the legal details.
Italy, which will chair the G7 next year, is concerned about possible retaliation from Russia through asset confiscation. Rome fears for the future of its companies operating in the Russian Federation. Moscow has already said it will cut diplomatic ties with the US in response to any asset seizure.
Although the US has yet to publicly call for the seizure of Russian assets, Washington officials sent a document to their G7 counterparts stating that asset forfeiture would be a perfectly legal and legally correct response to Russian aggression.
- Earlier, the Financial Times wrote that the US offers to transfer to Ukraine the frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank as an "advance" of compensation for war losses.
- On September 7, the United States informed that for the first time it would transfer the confiscated assets of Russian oligarchs to Ukraine. We are talking 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 (approximately €38 million) to Ukraine. Meanwhile, EU leaders approved a plan to transfer revenues from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.