Briefing Paper on Repurposing Frozen Russian Assets for Victims in Ukraine

READ THE BRIEFING PAPER

On Tuesday, the UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss stated to the Foreign Affairs Committee that she was “supportive of the concept” of confiscating frozen Russian assets and repurposing them for victims in Ukraine and that the government is looking at it.

REDRESS, CiFAR, International Lawyers Project, RUSI, and Spotlight on Corruption have published a briefing on this issue.

The briefing sets out:

  • Which Russian assets have been frozen,
  • Who is entitled to the assets,
  • How the frozen funds could help Ukraine,
  • What other countries are doing to achieve this,
  • Why existing UK laws are insufficient,
  • Proposals for legislative reform, and
  • Opportunities to repurpose fines from sanctions breaches.

It outlines eight recommendations for the UK government. The first step is for the government to be transparent about frozen Russian assets and any steps being taken to seek their repurposing.

Photo by: Brent Flanders, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0