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Sanctioned assets: from freeze, to seize, to Kyiv?

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24 March 2023 / Maria Nizzero
Issue: 8018 / Categories: Features , International justice , Sanctions , Rule of law
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Maria Nizzero sets out the complexities of possibly using seized sanctions assets to fund reconstruction in Ukraine
  • The imposition of sanctions has triggered a policy conversation about the potential for permanent confiscation of assets that are currently temporarily frozen under sanctions.
  • However, there are inherent limitations in using sanctions as the basis for permanent asset deprivation.
  • The response to Russian illicit finance should consider short-term and long-term foreign policy goals and desired criminal justice outcomes, and be delimited within the boundaries of the law.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has prompted an unprecedented surge in sanctions-based asset freezes directed at individuals linked to the Russian government. One year on from the invasion, the EU, the UK and the US all announced new packages of sanctions against Kremlin-linked individuals and those who supported its unlawful aggression against Ukraine.

The assets frozen under sanctions are passive and cannot be retrieved. There is a risk, if sanctions measures are dropped as a condition for ending

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