British Investments Secretary Dominic Johnson said on Tuesday that he had discussed seizing Russian assets blocked in the West with Wally Adeyemo, the US assistant secretary of the Treasury, but that any such action must strictly comply with international law, Reuters reported. .

Johnson said that we were “obviously” living in “unique times” but that it was imperative to ensure that any steps taken by Western nations and their partners around the world to seize frozen Russian assets were properly coordinated internationally, and that all there are still important details to clarify legal aspects.

A US Senate committee last week gave the green light to a bill that would provide a legal framework for the United States to seize Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine to help it in its recovery efforts.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed war on Ukraine, the European Union, the United States, Japan and Canada froze the assets of Russia’s Central Bank totaling $300 billion, but only about $5 billion was frozen by the United States. government.

US and British officials have explored various options for confiscating Moscow’s Central Bank assets, but last week European officials again ruled out such measures from the EU over concerns about their legality and their potential to scare off investors.

Instead, the EU prefers to impose an exceptional tax on profits derived from seized Russian assets, but their amount is only about 10% of their total value.

The US is conducting an active campaign to seize Russian assets

“We still have a lot of work to do,” Dominic Johnson also acknowledged after talks with the Treasury Department in Washington, adding that “we have to make sure every detail is right.”

“We have to make sure that these things are legally watertight,” he stressed.

Dominic Johnson also said the UK needed to protect its reputation as a “safe and stable” country for investment and that it was vital to have confidence that “the rest of the world feels confident that we respect the rule of law and property rights”.

Russia, which is preparing to adopt a law to confiscate the property of its citizens who criticize the country’s armed forces, has repeatedly charged that actions by Western countries against Russian assets they have frozen would be a gross violation of property rights.

A new attempt to find a solution to the confiscation of Russian assets is expected to be discussed at the next G7 meeting. The US is a strong supporter of the measure, but recently admitted that it is unlikely to be implemented anytime soon.