Sanctions give grounds to follow this path, but such a step should not contradict German law, and should be confirmed by a decision of the European Court, according to the German Foreign Minister.
Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany Annalena Burbock has cooled Ukraine's hopes for a quick transfer of frozen Russian public funds, DW reports.
“Access to frozen money is not so easy legally (…),” she was quoted as saying by dpa on Saturday, May 14. “Sanctions give grounds to follow this path, but such a step should not contradict German law and should be confirmed by a decision of the European Court.”
(G7) asked Germany and other G7 countries to pass a law allowing confiscation of Russian state assets and provide these funds to Ukraine to rebuild the country.
Read also: The US Congress unanimously supported the transfer to Ukraine of Russian assets confiscated through sanctions
It estimates hundreds of billions of dollars and euros. “Russia must pay politically, economically and financially. I appreciate the positive response of the G7 countries to my request,” said the Ukrainian minister. Kuleba noted that Canada has already taken appropriate measures and, in his opinion, others are following its example “sooner rather than later.”
For his part, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner welcomes the idea of using Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine's war-torn Ukraine. “My sense of justice speaks in favor when it comes to the assets of the Russian state,” the politician said in an interview with the weekly Der Spiegel. “It would be expropriation. In our rule of law, there are serious obstacles to such actions,” he said.
