The Guardian: UK to think about ways of using Russian assets

UK’s chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said that the UK government has requested the Bank of England look at how Russian sovereign assets could be used to fund Ukraine’s war effort.

“This is an illegal war. We need to do everything we can to make sure that Russia cannot continue to fund it,” Hunt told the BBC, The Guardian reports.

Speaking at the IMF’s annual conference in Marrakech, Hunt told the BBC that finance ministers from the G7 had discussed “whether Russian sovereign assets could be used to fund Ukraine’s defence. Anything to make sure that Putin knows in the end he won’t be able to afford this kind of aggression.”

The G7 yesterday said it would explore profits on seized Russian assets could be taxed to support Ukraine “in compliance with applicable laws”. However, there could be possible legal complications in effectively gifting seized Russian assets to Ukraine.

But Hunt said Russia’s war in Ukraine was illegal.

Britain will always act within international law, but the G7 has asked central banks to look at what might be possible because we are absolutely clear this is an illegal war, this war is against international law.

We do have to be honest with people that [the war in Ukraine] is going to take some time, and that’s why in the meantime we need to be very prudent and cautious with the way we manage the British economy.