Bangladesh, Feb. 15 -- The International Monetary Fund will assess at the appropriate time the unfreezing of Russian assets for later use, said the financial institutions deputy managing director, Gita Gopinath. Her statement was on February 12, the same day that the European Union approved the decision to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraines reconstruction, a decision that risks the image of the West as a safe destination for non-Western assets.

“Decisions about what to do with the assets rested solely with countries holding them,” she said when asked about the possibility of taking frozen Russian assets and dedicating them to the reconstruction of Ukraine.

While Gopinath noted the IMF would not be involved in the discuss...