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Frozen assets to be returned to Russia after end of conflict — newspaper

Assets of the Bank of Russia cannot be simply transferred to Ukraine, EC experts said

Building of the Russian Central Bank Valery Sharifulin/TASS

Building of the Russian Central Bank

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

BERLIN, April 13. /TASS/. Lawyers of the European Commission (EC) have arrived at a conclusion that assets of the Bank of Russia frozen in the EU will have to be returned to Russia after the end of the conflict in Ukraine, Die Welt newspaper said on Thursday, citing an unpublished EC document.

Assets of the Bank of Russia cannot be simply transferred to Ukraine, EC experts said. "There is political will but legal barriers are high. The European Commission comes to a sobering conclusion that frozen assets cannot be touched since once upon a time, when the war ends, they will have to be returned to Russia," the newspaper informed.

The next one suggested by the EC is to invest frozen assets of the Bank of Russia in European government bonds and use the interest for payments to Kiev. At the same time, the EU’s legal service has not yet found an answer to a question what to do if the EU loses these funds in a certain situation, the newspaper reported. Actions in such case still need to be clarified, Die Welt said.

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