At the recent gathering of G20 finance ministers in Brazil, delegates were gripped by a deep sense of unease over a pressing issue: the potential seizure or use of Russian assets frozen under the Western sanctions that followed its invasion of Ukraine,  reported from the Financial Times.

Two ministers — Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed al-Jadaan and Indonesia’s Sri Mulyani Indrawati — were among those particularly alarmed by the idea. Were G7 countries seriously preparing to do this?

And had they considered the full implications of such a drastic step? Their questions to their Western counterparts cut to the heart of a fraught debate over whether hundreds of billions of euros in frozen Russian central bank assets should be mobilized to help fund Ukraine as the conflict there drags into a third year.

Doing so would deliver a financial boost with the potential to turn the war in Kyiv’s favor, argue those in support, led by the US.

For opponents of the idea, such a move risks setting a dangerous precedent in international law — one that could endanger not only the interests of any country that falls out with Western capitals but also the international legal order itself.

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