The EU will eventually have to confiscate Russian assets if it wants Ukraine to win in the confrontation with the Russian Federation, said the head of the central bank of Latvia, Martins Kazaks.
“If the war will be long, bloody, and extremely expensive, at one point, you will have to go into these assets,” he emphasized.
However, according to Euractiv, some Western banks oppose EU proposals to redistribute billions of euros in proceeds from frozen Russian assets, fearing it could lead to costly legal proceedings.
Sanctions legislation in the EU, UK, and US typically provides for the freezing of assets belonging to designated individuals but not for their confiscation. Under UK law, assets can be confiscated, but only if they are deemed to be the proceeds of crime.
According to the publication’s sources, the decision to confiscate and redistribute the interest received from these assets puts the banks at risk of being challenged by their owners.