Group of Seven (G7) countries have not yet have agreed, even in general terms, on a concept for using Russia's frozen assets. This was announced by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the eve of the meeting of the heads of financial departments of the Group of Seven countries in the city of Stresa.
"Details of the asset utilization proposal have yet to be determined. “We expect an agreement on the overall concept and if we get it, we will spend the next few weeks before the Puglia summit discussing the details,” she said.
“USD 50 billion is the amount that has been discussed, but the decision on the amount has not been made yet,“, Yellen added. According to her, "she is very tall" the likelihood that the assets of the Russian Federation will remain frozen for several years, “while Russia“ compensate Ukraine for the damage caused. At the same time, according to the head of the US Treasury Department, there is no need to “block these funds until they are returned”.
The European Union, Canada, the United States and Japan have frozen Russia's assets in the amount of about 300 billion USD after the start of a special military operation. Of that, approximately $5-6 billion is in the US. Previously, Congress approved a package of bills to provide military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, to confiscate frozen assets of the Russian Federation to be transferred to Kiev, as and on the introduction of additional sanctions against China.
On May 21, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky announced that EU countries have approved a plan to use 90% of revenues from Russian assets to supply Ukraine with weapons.
Bank of Russia President Elvira Nabiulina stressed in November 2023 that the confiscation and freezing of Russian assets by the West will have negative consequences in general for the development of the world financial system. As Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said in an interview with TASS in January, the Russian Federation will be forced to act symmetrically if Western countries decide to confiscate its reserves.