The Financial Times said on the 22nd that international lawyers led by former senior U.S. diplomat Zelicau have prepared a legal basis for the use of Russia's sovereign assets. In their view, this is a "reasonable countermeasure" against Russia's attack on Ukraine, which is a serious violation of international law. Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, $50 billion in Iraqi assets were seized and transferred through the United Nations for use in international compulsory compensation. But other legal scholars have questioned this reasoning.
Cheng Dawei, a professor of the Department of International Economics of the Chinese University, said in an interview with the Global Times on the 22nd that if the relevant plans of the United States come to fruition, the impact will be very bad. If the U.S. law prides itself on paying attention to the spirit of contract and protecting the safety of depositors, if it is finally allowed to dispose of Russia's frozen assets without permission, this will inevitably trample on the "spirit of contract" and violate the law and credit system. This should not be decided by the United States** or Congress after a simple process.
In fact, there are many examples of the United States confiscating the assets of other countries' central banks in recent years. In August 2021, after the hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban quickly took over power, and the U.S. immediately froze more than $7 billion in assets deposited with the Federal Reserve by Afghan banks. In February 2022, Biden signed an executive order to divide the $7 billion of the Central Bank of Afghanistan's assets equally, half of which will be used to compensate the victims of 9/11, and the other half will be transferred to an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to "help the Afghan people." Afghanistan and other countries condemned this, pointing out that this is a hegemonic act of illegally seaping Afghan assets, which will deal a huge blow to the Afghan economy and people's livelihood, and at the same time called for the return of these assets to the Afghan people as soon as possible.
The United States has also frozen the assets of Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and other countries, even involving personal and corporate assets. In September 2019, due to US sanctions against Iran, two South Korean banks froze a total of about $7 billion in Iranian funds, which is the largest amount of Iranian oil exported to South Korea and the largest amount of Iranian overseas frozen funds. Iran has repeatedly called on the ROK to unfreeze its funds, but the United States has refused. Only recently did the United States agree to unfreeze the funds, transfer them to accounts in third countries, and restrict Iran's access to them.