The Kremlin is breathing. Moscow woke up this Friday with the news of the failure of negotiations between member countries of the European Union, who failed to agree the day before to deliver to Ukraine the funds from the Central Bank of Russia that the Union maintains frozen (around 210 billion euros). “Law and reason win… for now,” wrote on his social network Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin’s special envoy in his negotiations with Washington. The Russian president described the attempt to confiscate these funds as “looting”.
“A major blow to the European Union warmongers led by the failed Ursula (von der Leyen): European voices of reason blocked the illegal use of Russian reserves to finance Ukraine,” Dmitriev said via X.
“Theft is not the correct term. Theft is the clandestine theft of goods, but here they are trying to do it openly. This is looting,” Putin said shortly after while commenting on the European debate over the funds he spent on his invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian leader warned that the confiscation of Russian funds could have serious repercussions for the euro zone. “Other countries will see how the European Union is stealing from Russia and think: ‘What if they did the same to us?’ added the leader of a country that has confiscated and placed under government control hundreds of companies, including dozens Western, since the start of the war, as well as other assets, such as the Boeing and Airbus planes that operate its airlines.
Although Europe will not hand over Moscow’s assets to kyiv, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has promised revenge for the freezing of these funds, which remain blocked in the EU for the duration of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Our retaliation will not be long in coming. Russia will find a way to effectively protect its interests and compensate for the losses resulting from the illegal manipulation of our assets,” the diplomat said in an interview with the state agency Ria Novosti.
In a war whose end is not in sight, Grushkó regretted that “the pro-Ukrainian majority” of the community bloc had promoted to the Council of the European Union “the decision to block assets for an indefinite period.”
Putin’s special envoy also said that this failure of the negotiations was “a victory for the voices of reason who protected the European Union, the euro and Euroclear (for now).” Euroclear is the Belgian entity in which the majority of these assets are deposited.
Hours before the decision was announced, the Central Bank of Russia announced in a statement that it would “seek satisfaction in Russian courts for the damage caused by European banks,” including lost profits.
“Now I will go to my dacha.”
One of the opponents of the proposal to allocate frozen Russian funds to Ukraine was Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever. After completing the negotiations, he joked at the press conference about an alleged connection with the Kremlin. “Now I’m going to go to my dacha (country house) in St. Petersburg, where Depardieu is my neighbor and Asad lives across the street. I think I could be mayor of this little town,” he joked, before emphasizing that “it was a joke.” “If you write about this, don’t forget to mention that I was joking,” added the European politician.
The British newspaper Tutor published on the eve of the European meeting that Russian intelligence had Belgian politicians “in their sights”, even if they only supported these allegations in which the company Euroclear had hired bodyguards and Bart de Wever warned of the “legal and financial risks that Western companies would face”.
Faced with disagreement over the use of Russian assets, the European Union agreed to issue 90 billion euros in Eurobonds to finance Ukraine. The bloc has so far supported kyiv to the tune of some 187 billion euros in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
For comparison, Greece’s bailout amounted to around €300 billion, while the NextGenerationEU funds launched for post-pandemic recovery total around €750 billion.
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