Berlin ‘open’ to seizing Russian central bank assets for Ukraine

BERLIN: German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Wednesday he was “open” to a discussion about confiscating assets from Russia’s sanctions-hit central bank to help pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

Ukraine’s Western allies have frozen huge sums of the Russian central bank’s foreign currency reserves over Moscow’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine. They have also seized yachts, mansions and artworks belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

Since then, calls have grown louder in the European Union and the United States to use the proceeds from those assets to help rebuild war-scarred Ukraine.

“I am open to an international discussion on the question of confiscating the assets of the Russian central bank,” Lindner told reporters in Berlin.

“If that is desired, it is politically conceivable for me.”

But he said seizing the private assets of Russian individuals or companies would be more complex because of different legal considerations.

“That would be expropriation, in that case we are dealing with legal norms that can’t just be ignored politically,” Lindner said.

“Even non-German citizens are protected by our legal system.”

European Council chief Charles Michel last week said he was “convinced” the EU should not only freeze sanctioned Russian assets, but also “confiscate it, to make it available for the rebuilding”. US President Joe Biden has also proposed that oligarchs’ seized assets be “sold off” to “remedy the harm Russia caused and to help build Ukraine”.

Legal experts however have cautioned that such seizures could violate due-process protections and invite complicated legal challenges.

Ukraine’s government in April estimated the cost of rebuilding after the war to be at least $600 billion (565 billion euros).

As part of sweeping sanctions over Russia’s aggression, Kyiv’s Western allies agreed to limit the Russian central bank’s ability to access its foreign reserves. These are estimated to be over $600 billion and are the vast windfall of Russia’s immense energy wealth.