Browder calls for seizure of Russian assets over Navalny
American-born British financier Bill Browder, instigator of the US Magnitsky Act and similar regimes, described the UK government’s response to the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny as ‘shameful,’ saying a more appropriate reaction would be for Western allies to seize the $300 billion of Russian assets that were frozen after Moscow invaded Ukraine two years ago this week.
The UK’s Foreign Office announced sanctions, 21 February, on six officials it said were in charge of the penal colony where Navalny died last week. The same day, Browder posted on X: ‘If this is the extent of the UK reaction to Navalny’s murder then it’s completely shameful. The UK, US, EU and other allies should confiscate Russia’s $300 billion of reserves.’
Meanwhile, the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chair Alicia Kearns has told banks in Britain to stop resisting a plan by Foreign Secretary David Cameron aimed at seizing Russian assets to fund reconstruction in Ukraine. ‘It is Russian central bank assets that should pay for the defence and reconstruction of Ukraine,’ she said, 20 February. ‘Enough of financiers obfuscating – if we want economic security we need national security and that means deterring crimes of aggression.’
Cameron said last month that there is a ‘moral, political, legal, and economic case’ for using money seized from Russia to help rebuild Ukraine.
Top US and European Union officials have also spoken in favour of seizing Russia’s ‘immobilised’ assets and directing them to Ukraine. Earlier this month, the EU passed a law requiring central securities depositories (‘CSDs’) holding more than 1 million euros of assets owned by the Central Bank of Russia to account separately for the profits generated from them, saying it looks to this as a first step to channelling the proceeds to Ukraine.
Last month in Davos, Western officials said they were open to confiscating Russia’s $300 billion, but were mired in the legalities of such a move.
