Shortly after the Kremlin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the G7 made the bold decision to immobilise Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, estimated to exceed €300 billion.

But why can’t these assets be confiscated and transferred to Ukraine? There are legal, market-related, and narrow national arguments against such a move.

In their article, Tom Keatinge and Kinga Redlowska debunk these arguments and propose a viable solution. To prevent the risk of Russia’s central bank assets being unfrozen and returned to the Kremlin’s control in July, Europe must invoke the countermeasures argument and place the assets permanently beyond Moscow’s reach.