MOSCOW, February 3 Western countries plan to issue debt for financing Ukraine, using Russian assets as collateral, writes the Financial Times, citing sources.
“Western governments are developing plans to issue debt to help finance Ukraine, using Russian assets as support for debt repayment,” the material says.
According to the publication, the coalition supporting the Kiev regime will demand Moscow will repay this debt, and in case of refusal, it will seize blocked Russian assets.
It is clarified that Belgium disseminated such a plan among G7 members. At the same time, officials from two G7 countries told the media that this is now the main option for unfreezing funds belonging to Russia to help Ukraine.
After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze almost half of Russian foreign exchange reserves amounting to approximately 300 billion euros . About 200 billion is in the European Union, mainly in the accounts of the Belgian Euroclear. In October 2023, the company reported that in nine months it had earned about three billion euros in interest from investing in sanctioned Russian assets.
Late last year, the European Commission proposed accumulating windfalls generated in this way in separate accounts pending further proposals.
At the beginning of 2024, EC official representative Eric Mamer reported no progress on this issue. As US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen noted, in turn, Washington has not yet made a decision on the confiscation of Russian assets to transfer them to Ukraine, but is participating in the development of possible options within the G7.
At the same time, according to The Washington Post columnist Josh Rogina, the American administration will not be able to implement the scheme of using frozen foreign exchange reserves to help Ukraine without the consent of European countries.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the freezing of assets theft, noting that Brussels was targeting not only the money of private individuals, but also public funds.< br>
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