Hopes for speedy transfer of Russian funds dampened
Created: 05/14/2022, 13:52
Annalena Baerbock (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Foreign Minister of Germany, speaks.
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock gives Ukraine no hope that frozen Russian state funds will be passed on quickly.
"Access to frozen money is legally (...) anything but easy," said the Green politician on Saturday after a G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Weißenhaus on the Baltic Sea.
There are a number of good reasons for taking this path - but sanctions and such a step in particular must also stand up to German law and the European Court of Justice.
Wangels - At the meeting in Schleswig-Holstein, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asked Germany and the other G7 countries to pass laws to confiscate Russian state assets and make them available to Ukraine for the country's reconstruction.
"We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars in Europe," he said.
Russia had to pay for the war politically, economically, but also financially.
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In Europe, meanwhile, political risks are seen alongside legal difficulties.
It is feared that countries like Russia and China will set up an alternative international financial system in response to expropriations.
Baerbock commented on the conclusion of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in a luxury hotel near Weißenhäuser Strand.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba also took part in it as a guest.
Germany currently chairs the G7 group.
In addition to the Federal Republic, the group includes the NATO states USA, Canada, France, Great Britain and Italy as well as Japan.
dpa
