{"id":76436,"date":"2024-03-18T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/?p=76436"},"modified":"2024-03-18T09:26:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T13:26:03","slug":"aaron-gasch-burnett-its-time-to-seize-russian-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/2024-03-18\/aaron-gasch-burnett-its-time-to-seize-russian-assets\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Gasch Burnett: Want to be a real global leader, Canada? Start by seizing Russian assets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Amidst embarrassing delays<\/a> to Canada\u2019s military equipment shipments to Ukraine, there is a bright light of Canadian leadership in support of Kyiv\u2019s fight against an invading Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Canada is currently one of only three countries\u2014alongside the U.S. and Switzerland\u2014to have drafted legislation to seize Russia\u2019s central bank reserves. Over $400 billion CAD<\/a> of these assets have been sitting in Western accounts since they were frozen two years ago. Since then, the Russians haven\u2019t been able to access them, but they also haven\u2019t been able to be used for anything else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet even as Canada and other foreign countries confiscated the private assets<\/a> of Russian oligarchs, Russia\u2019s state assets have remained immune from such seizure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s changing under an amendment<\/a> to Canadian sanctions law, finally allowing the government to confiscate Russia\u2019s state assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yuliya Ziskina, a senior legal fellow for the pro-Ukraine non-profit Razom Advocacy, who was consulted with by Canadian Senators on the recent amendment to sanctions law, estimates that $25.5 billion CAD lie frozen in either Canadian accounts or those associated with Euroclear Bank in Belgium<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n