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The EU should take custody of Russia’s frozen accounts — now

  • Hugo Dixon
  • Aug 8
  • 2 min read

Statement by

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer

Nathalie Loiseau

Daleep Singh


  1. The EU should immediately transfer custody of the frozen Russian Central Bank accounts in the bloc to a new EU custodian. 

  2. Doing so now would strengthen Ukraine’s negotiating position whether the war continues or peace talks begin.

  3. The EU would become custodian of the accounts, taking on the liabilities to Russia as well as the €210 billion assets. This is not confiscation as the Central Bank of Russia would remain the owner of the accounts after the transfer of custody.

  4. Euroclear and other financial institutions with frozen Russian accounts would no longer be vulnerable to coercion by the Kremlin. The EU is far better placed than individual financial institutions or member states to withstand pressure from Moscow.

  5. Moving the accounts would allay the legal and financial concerns that stopped the EU using the Russian accounts to help Ukraine at last December’s European Council.

  6. There is a precedent for transferring custody of sovereign accounts: after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi sovereign assets outside Iraq were moved to a new account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

  7. The bloc would have greater flexibility to use the assets in future to help Ukraine, acting always in accordance with international and EU law.

  8. The EU should move the accounts without delay as its recent €90 billion Ukraine loan will run out next year and the window of opportunity for action may snap shut if key elections in member states next year produce leaders who are less supportive of Ukraine.


Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is Chair of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.  She served as Germany’s Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2018 to 2021.


Nathalie Loiseau is Chair, Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield, European Parliament. She is a member of the European Parliament. She served as the French Minister for European Affairs from 2017 to 2019.


Daleep Singh is Vice Chair and Chief Global Economist for PGIM, the $1.4 trillion asset management arm of Prudential. He served as US Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics in the Biden administration, head of the Markets Group at the New York Fed, and Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets at the U.S. Treasury. He was one of the prime architects of G7 sanctions packages on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, as well as the $50 billion G7 ERA loan to Ukraine. 


For more information, including a draft regulation that spells out in legal terms the mechanism for moving the Russian accounts, see TheRussianTransfer.com.


8 August 2026

 
 
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