Confiscating frozen Russian assets could have unintended consequences that would hurt the international financial system, said Valerie Urben, Euroclear CEO, which holds most of Russia’s frozen assets.
“Russia can always take countermeasures that could further destabilize financial markets,” she said.
Urben noted that US President Donald Trump is trying to persuade Ukraine to negotiate with Russia. The fate of Russia’s frozen assets could become one topic of the negotiations, with some officials preferring to move forward with asset confiscation.
“We saw the case with Iranian assets more than 20 years ago. So, I don’t think this is a purely theoretical possibility,” Urben said.
However, if EU members do seize Russian assets, they will have to take on the accompanying financial obligations to protect Euroclear from any future Russian lawsuits. So far, the EU and the G7 have only agreed to use the profits generated by these assets to provide $50B in aid to Ukraine.