The French president stated that seizing frozen Russian assets is impossible.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that seizing frozen Russian assets would be a violation of the law.
According to RIA Novosti, French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with CBS News on September 21, stated that seizing frozen sovereign assets of Russia is impossible because it violates international law.
"These assets cannot be seized from the Central Bank even under such circumstances. I believe this is a matter of trust, and it is very important that our countries respect international law," President Macron said.
The French leader emphasized that violations of international law could become "the beginning of chaos."
"We can anticipate this and will not do anything impossible with these frozen assets," President Macron said.
Earlier, on September 17, the Belgian depository Euroclear told RIA Novosti that it had not yet received a specific proposal from the European Union regarding the use of the assets, but was aware of such plans.
Following Russia's launch of its special military operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 member states froze nearly half of Russia's foreign exchange reserves, approximately 300 billion euros. Over 200 billion dollars of this was held in Euroclear accounts – one of the world's largest payment and clearing systems.
In late August, Welt am Sonntag reported, citing data from the European Commission, that the EU had transferred 10.1 billion euros from the Bank of Russia in frozen funds to Ukraine between January and July.
