Faced with increasing domestic opposition to providing Ukraine with more financial aid, the United States and its allies are considering seizing frozen Russian assets to help fund Kyiv's war effort. Such a move, however, would lead Moscow to retaliate by confiscating Western companies' assets in Russia, which would in turn help the Russian government fund its invasion of Ukraine, while escalating the greater economic tit-for-tat between Russia and the West. In recent weeks, the G-7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) have intensified discussions about the possibility of seizing Russian government-owned financial assets stashed in Western nations, and then using those funds to support Ukraine's war effort or fund its reconstruction. Since Russia launched its Ukraine invasion in February 2022, the United States has generally taken a more assertive stance on seizing, not just freezing, Russian government assets compared with the European Union,...
