Shortly after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the West prohibited transactions with the Bank of Russia and the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Finance. This effectively froze around $300 billion (£223 billion) of sovereign assets in foreign currency and gold reserves, mostly held in Euroclear, the central securities depository in Brussels.

Since then there have been ongoing discussions in Europe and the United States about the possibility of somehow accessing this enormous pool of money to help fund Ukraine’s defence and perhaps to use some of the assets for reconstruction and development once the conflict comes to an end. Western leaders would not be human if they did not at least entertain the idea: the United States has so far supplied $135 billion (£

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