Maria Nizzero - Why it May be Impossible to use Frozen Russian Assets to pay for Rebuilding Ukraine.

“As the UK government mulls the idea of using frozen Russian assets to help pay for the rebuilding of war-torn Ukraine, ministers appear to have failed to realise that a simple weapon against sanctioned assets is within their reach. That is introducing a provision forcing sanctioned oligarchs to disclose all their assets in the UK.” Today I will be discussing this idea that could make a huge difference to Ukraine with the author of these words, Maria Nizzero. We’ll be discussing whether it is moral or feasible to funnel the assets of rich Russians to pay for the crimes of a regime that they enabled. Maria Nizzero is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies (CFCS) of the Royal United Services Institute. Her research focuses on UK economic crime, the foreign policy dimension of illicit finance, asset recovery, kleptocracy and corporate transparency. Her work is important to the war in Ukraine, as she is currently looking at ways to recover frozen sanctioned assets. Maria has extensive knowledge of and deep personal interest in the topics of European Union politics, illicit finance and security studies, organised crime, and terrorism. She is a former Associate Professor of EU Politics and currently PhD candidate in the Law Programme at UPF, International Public Law and International Relations Department.