Germany opposes handing over Russian assets to Ukraine over fears it could trigger new lawsuits against it for World War II crimes. It could also lead to lawsuits against other European countries — for colonialism and slavery.
This is reported by The Wall Street Journal with reference to German officials.
Demands for reparations for World War II crimes have dogged Germany for decades, sometimes straining its relations with its neighbors. After World War II, Berlin paid compensation to the Entente states and the then Soviet Union for Germanyʼs aggressive war.
Since 1952, Germany has given more than $90 billion to Holocaust survivors and their families, according to Jewish organizations. Calls for further reparations are appearing even now. As of 2019, Greece has demanded more than $300 billion in compensation, and Poland — $1.3 trillion from 2022.
Germany says its initial postwar payments and a 1990 treaty that fixed the countryʼs borders after reunification settled the issue. The then Soviet Union and the United States were signatories to the treaty, but Poland, Greece, and Italy were not involved.
In recent years, Italian courts in Italy, which the Nazis invaded after the fall of Benito Mussoliniʼs fascist regime in 1943, have awarded restitution payments to the families of victims of the occupation. And some courts even tried to seize German state assets in Italy, for which Germany sued Italy at the UN International Court of Justice.
"Berlin argues that international law prohibits individuals from suing states in foreign courts and that state assets are immune from seizure. Violation of this principle in the case of Russia would undermine Germanyʼs long-standing legal position," WSJ writes, citing unnamed representatives of Berlin.
In addition, Germany also proposes to use the frozen Russian assets as a lever of influence on Russia, in order to force it to return the occupied territories to Ukraine in the event of peace negotiations.
The head of the Pism think tank, Slawomir Debsky, believes that Berlin may have another motivation for refusing to seize Russian assets — this is how it protects German companies still operating in Russia. According to the Leave Russia group, which advocates the exit of Western companies from the Russian market, 272 German companies continue to work in Russia.
Bart Shewczyk, an American lawyer who previously advised the European Commission and worked at the International Court of Justice, says Berlinʼs concerns about setting a precedent for reparations cases are unfounded. According to German officials, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz simply does not want to take any chances on this issue.
- Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the EU has frozen the assets of the Russian Central Bank for more than €200 billion. 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.
- US President Joe Biden wants the G7 countries to make progress on implementing plans to use frozen Russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine before the leadersʼ meeting in June 2024. Biden privately told his allies that if Ukraine loses, the international order will be turned upside down for at least the next five decades.
- The Financial Times wrote that Ukraine may receive the first part of revenues from Russian assets frozen in the EU in July.