Nearly two years after invasion, West still seeking a way to steer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

WASHINGTON — It’s been nearly two years since the United States and its allies froze hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian foreign holdings in retaliation for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. At this week’s World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for a “strong” decision this year for the frozen assets in Western banks to “be directed towards defense against the Russian war and for reconstruction” of Ukraine. But by that time Western leaders will have ceased to make any political case for supporting Ukraine, and getting support back up will be much harder.” The U.S. announced at the start of Russia’s invasion that America and its allies had blocked access to more than $600 billion that Russia held outside its borders — including roughly $300 billion in funds belonging to Russia’s Central Bank. “That is a future benefit to Kyiv I think we should look at and take seriously.” Sergey Aleksashenko, a former Russian Central Banker who is now a member of the Russian Antiwar Committee with other dissidents, said that while he strongly believes Russia should be forced to compensate Ukraine, “I do not believe that there is any way to confiscate assets of the Russian Central Bank without a court deciding on the matter.” “Because if there is no legal basis to confiscate Russian assets, and if it is done by the decision of the administration, that means that there is no rule of law in the U.S. and there is no protection of private property.” He said an administrative decision to confiscate Russia’s assets could prompt nations like China — the biggest holder of U.S. Treasuries — to determine that it is not safe to keep its reserves in U.S. dollars. Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, cautioned that if Ukraine’s immediate needs aren’t met, “no amount of seized Russian assets is unfortunately going to compensate for what may happen.” “And by then it is going to be very overwhelming.” ___ Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer, Lisa Mascaro, Seung Min Kim, Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani in Washington and Sam Petrequin in Brussels and Jamey Keaton in Davos contributed to this report.