EU examines legality and ways to seize $280 bln of frozen Russian assets

European officials are discussing the possibility of withdrawing about $280bn of frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank and using them to rebuild Ukraine. This was reported by Bloomberg news agency on February 22.

"EU officials are discussing how the assets could be used as collateral for a planned "International Claims Commission" that would determine compensation owed to Ukraine. The assets could then be confiscated if Moscow refuses to pay damages," the sources said on condition of anonymity.

According to the draft under discussion, the value of the confiscated Russian assets would be offset by "Russia's obligations to compensate for damages under a potential peace agreement."

"The EU, G7 countries and Australia have frozen about $280 billion of Russian Central Bank assets in the form of securities and cash. <...> Sanctions imposed on Russian persons have frozen about $58 billion more in assets," the agency quotes the US Treasury as saying.

The process is underway: Russians were able to unblock more than half of their assets

But it will be more difficult to unfreeze funds further - what other options do investors have?

A day earlier, on February 21, Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the State Duma's Financial Market Committee, predicted a speedy easing of sanctions against Russia. The parliamentarian added that the market should develop according to market laws and if such decisions are made, it means that common sense is gradually beginning to triumph.On February 12, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov drew attention to the fact that European countries are preparing new sanctions amid the difficult situation of their own economies.