Friday 6 November 2026 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Berkowitz/Finley Lecture Hall
About
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In February 2022, a coalition of states froze approximately US$300 billion in foreign currency reserves accumulated by the Central Bank of Russia. These assets soon came into focus as the likeliest source for the provision of reparations that Russia owes Ukraine. This presentation traces the evolution of the discussion about the fate of frozen Russian state assets through three main phases. In particular, it outlines how public international law debates were ultimately displaced by the EU’s efforts at financial engineering. Unable to definitely resolve the international law controversies, governments are considering proposals for the collateralisation of Russian foreign currency reserves that are aimed to achieve what is at first sight impossible: giving this money to Ukraine without depriving Russia of it.
Anton Moiseienko is an Associate Professor of Law at the Australian National University (ANU) Law School. He specialises in financial crime and economic sanctions, with particular expertise in global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) regulation and in Australian, UK, EU, US and UN sanctions law and practice. He has developed and taught postgraduate courses in Financial Crime Law and Transnational Anti-Corruption Laws. Anton has advised the World Bank, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Basel Institute on Governance, prepared expert opinions for law enforcement agencies, and is regularly sought as a commentator by Australian and international media.
He is the author of Doing Business with Criminals (Cambridge University Press, 2025), described by reviewers as 'an indispensable guide' to the global AML/CTF system and a 'classic for years to come', and Corruption and Targeted Sanctions (Brill, 2019) the first-ever monograph on the legal and policy implications of ‘Magnitsky’ sanctions. He has also co-edited four books, including Research Handbook on Transnational Crime (2019); Policing Transnational Crime (2020); Criminal Networks and Law Enforcement (2020); and Transnational Crime: European and Chinese Perspectives (2019).
He is currently working on a book entitled The Kremlin’s Treasure: Russia’s Frozen $300 Billion and Reparations for Ukraine (Bristol University Press, forthcoming).
There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome.
Chair: Prof Jan Klabbers
The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment.