Kira Rudik's team prepared a policy paper on the process of russian assets confiscation
Ukraine's partner countries have already shown a clear political will to confiscate russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine. Currently, the processes of developing the necessary legislative mechanisms to implement this plan are underway. As part of the implementation of the confiscation project, the team of the leader of the Golos party, MP, and vice-president of ALDE Kira Rudik conducted research and prepared analytics regarding the jurisdictions of Canada, the USA, Great Britain, and the EU.
«Despite the fact that the partner countries clearly state the need to confiscate russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine, the legislative framework for this and effective mechanisms are still being developed. New approaches are needed here. This paper aims to describe the legal challenges and issues, present recent legislative developments in this area, and provide further policy recommendations on steps to be taken», — comments the leader of Golos.
The work is conducted on two types of russian assets: the Central Bank of the russian federation and private (oligarchs' money). The main challenges that will have to be faced in the process of withdrawing money from the russian federation are the right of sovereign immunity and the right to private property. So far, the first country that has developed, changed the legislation, and has already begun to implement it is Canada. The United Kingdom, the USA, and EU countries are still in the process of finding mechanisms. Each country is looking for its own way and approach to make it impossible for russians to challenge such decisions in courts in the future.
«No precedents in international law can be directly applied to the case of russian aggression against Ukraine, some successful legal frameworks have already been adopted at the national level (for example, in Canada) and await full practical application. We must concentrate our efforts so that this issue continues to remain on the political agenda, and legislative changes are not just declarations. For this, we have also developed a number of recommendations», — explains the MP.
Currently, the amount of state assets of the russian federation, which are kept outside russia, is $630 billion. Approximately half of these assets have been frozen in all G7 economies.
In the EU, €30 billion belongs to russian and Belarusian individuals and companies, including €800 million in France. The total wealth of russian oligarchs under British sanctions is estimated at £150 billion.
The study was carried out with the support of the FNF Foundation, the full text can be found following the link https://www.kirarudik.com/ua/use-russias-money-to-help-ukraine-ua.