The media pointed to the West's need to unfreeze Russian assets to start negotiations

Western countries need to unfreeze Russian assets in order to start negotiations on resolving the conflict in Ukraine. This was reported by the UnHerd portal on January 24.

"It is likely that the West will have to unfreeze Russian assets to start negotiations, but politicians and journalists hardly talk about it," the publication said.

According to the portal, Western countries show naivety and ignorance, trusting economic analysts who give an erroneous assessment of the situation.

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Earlier, on January 17, it became known that as a result of the lifting of sanctions, Russia may receive frozen assets "the next day". High-ranking officials of the European Union (EU) specified that their main goal is to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to keep the anti-Russian restrictions. At the same time, "measures are being developed that could protect at least some of them."

Prior to that, on January 14, CNN reported, citing sources, that the former administration of U.S. President Joe Biden had proposed to European colleagues to transfer Russia's frozen assets to a special account. According to the sources, supporters of the American leader Donald Trump are not against this initiative.

On December 24, 2024, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal wrote in his Telegram channel that the country received $1 billion at the expense of frozen Russian assets, adding that this was the first tranche of the planned $20 billion that the United States is ready to allocate through the use of immobilized Russian assets within the framework of the G7 initiative.

Andrei Klimov, deputy chairman of the Federation Council's (SF) Committee on International Affairs, called for the launch of inspections and civil and criminal proceedings after the transfer of $1 billion from Russian assets to Ukraine.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Kiev against the backdrop of Russia's special operation to protect Donbass, which was announced by the Russian president on February 24, 2022, after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military. Soon the EU approved the freezing of assets of the Russian Central Bank. A total of about $335bn was frozen.