Ukraine and Latvia have agreed to work together on a bilateral cooperation agreement the goal of which is confiscating Russian war criminals’ property and dedicating the confiscated funds to Ukraine’s recovery, as confirmed by Ukraine’s Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska and his Latvian colleague Jānis Bordāns at a press-conference held this Thursday, 14 July.
Maliuska stressed at the press-conference that no place or territory is currently safe in Ukraine: «While we were discussing legal issues, Russia attacked one more western Ukrainian city approximately an hour ago. It’s located far away from the front line. Considering events of recent months, such events are nothing unusual for Ukraine.»
The field of justice is especially vital during a war, because it is necessary to show to the world and local residents that it is possible to fight Russian aggression using not only army but also different legal tools, admits the Ukrainian minister.
«There are multiple alternatives, for example, putting Russia and Russian officials on trial, but this is an endless process that may take decades. We are moving in this direction, but it is not halting Russian attacks at the moment,» said Maliuska.
Another alternative mentioned by the Ukrainian Minister of Justice was the use of western sanctions, which are considered good support from allied countries. At the same time, he stressed that sanctions need time to generate an effect since Russia does not experience their effect in the short-term. This is why currently imposed sanctions have yet to yield any tangible results.
Maliuska says it is necessary to impose even tighter sanctions against Russia.
«What we see now is that sanctions have made global gas and oil prices very high, and Russia’s profits since its invasion of Ukraine have only increased. Now they are talking about a self-financed war, because their income has only increased. Because of this reason we have to go farther and adopt stricter sanctions,» said Maliuska.
«Russia owns more than USD 300 billion worth of assets in western countries. Countries that are our allies. There are reserves of the Russian Central Bank, as well as structure and private persons with ties to Russia,» he added.
Ukraine’s minister also believes experts in the field of law have to find ways to divert these enormous Russian-owned assets towards the needs of cities and people who have suffered from Russia’s offensive. The problem is primarily of legal nature, because Russia has constructed a ‘legal fortress» around this money, preventing its confiscation, said the minister.
According to Maliuska, Ukraine doesn’t want to go around the world and ask for assistance from different countries and governments, saying things like «Please help us out with money and resources, because we have none because of Russia. Help us finance Ukraine’s army and its people!»
«There is plenty of Russian money abroad, and this money should go first. And only after that will we consider asking European taxpayers to help.»
«In recent months we have composed a special work group in our ministry. It consists of the best lawyers from all over the world working to find a recipe to destroy this «legal fortress». The good news is that we have found a solution,» said Maliuska.
This «recipe» is the signing and ratification of a special agreement that would allow converting Russian foreign assets into currency and then transferring it in a transparent way to a foundation that will pay compensation to the people who have suffered in the war Russia has started. Latvia is the first country to have signed this agreement with Ukraine, as both ministers told the press.
«Our friend Latvia is the first country in the world to have proposed starting talks about this agreement and then signing it. We will start putting together such an agreement for the rest of the world – be like Latvia, sign this agreement with Ukraine and secure access to Russian assets to help satisfy the acute needs of Ukraine and her people!» stressed Maliuska.
This was the first time Riga hosted an international justice leaders forum Responsibility and Innovations in Times of Change. During this forum, justice leader from multiple countries participated in discussions regarding opportunities to ensure development of the justice sector in modern unstable times. Investigation of Russian war crimes was in the focus of this forum.
Read also: Europe freezes Russian assets worth EUR 13.8 billion