Europe’s decision time: the future of frozen Russian assets

Timothy Ash is an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House and a senior sovereign strategist at RBC Bluebay Asset Management in London. Ash has worked as a professional economist for more than 30 years, with 20 of those years in banking, working for institutions such as RBS, Bear Stearns, Nomura, and ICBC Standard Bank among others. Ash’ specialism is emerging European economics, as related to fixed income investments. He writes and blogs extensively on economic challenges and his articles are published in the Kyiv Post, Atlantic Council, the Financial Times and the United Business Journal. He has advised various governments on Ukraine-Russia policy and specifically on the impact of sanctions.

Lee Buchheit is an Honorary Professor at University of Edinburgh Law School. Specialising in sovereign debt management, Buchheit has worked on over two dozen sovereign debt restructurings. He led the international legal teams advising the Hellenic Republic and the Republic of Iraq in their debt restructurings, the two largest sovereign debt workouts in history. Buchheit is the author of two books on international law and over 40 scholarly papers on sovereign debt matters.

Hugo Dixon is a British journalist, campaigner and entrepreneur. He is commentator-at-large for Reuters and a leading voice on economic and geopolitical issues. Dixon is also a principal architect of a proposal to channel Russia’s $300bn frozen sovereign assets to Ukraine via a reparations loan, combining financial strategy with international accountability. He was the founder, chair, and editor-in-chief of Breakingviews. Before setting up Breakingviews, he was editor of the Financial Times’ Lex Column. After Thomson Reuters acquired Breakingviews, Hugo founded InFacts, a journalistic enterprise making the fact-based case against Brexit. He was also one of the founders of the People’s Vote which campaigned for a new referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU. 

Ambassador John E. Herbst is Senior Director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former career minister in the US Foreign Service. Herbst served as US ambassador to Ukraine (2003–06), helping strengthen bilateral ties and support a fair presidential election during the Orange Revolution, and to Uzbekistan (2000–03), where he aided the establishment of a US base for Operation Enduring Freedom and encouraged human rights reforms. He later led US reconstruction and stabilization efforts, creating the Civilian Response Corps. Herbst previously held senior diplomatic posts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Moscow, and elsewhere. He has written widely on Eurasia and frequently comments on the Ukraine crisis. He holds degrees from Georgetown and the Fletcher School.

Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra Kanani was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.