EU will have to seize Russian assets eventually if it wants a Ukraine win, ECB official says – POLITICO
“We’re all in the European Union, and an attack on one is an attack on everybody,” he said. “Those countries that share the euro area — I don’t think that I need to spell out the conclusion — if something happens in any other countries, it’ll affect the overall role of the euro.”
Moreover, supporting the Ukrainian war effort is not at odds with the ECB’s narrow primary goal of maintaining price stability, Kazāks said, highlighting the outsize effect of energy prices on the inflationary surge of the past two years. “[The war] affects economic ability, it affects credibility and at the end of the day it of course affects inflation, and our target is inflation and our mandate is inflation. So it does affect our ability to reach our target,” he said.
He said that while the ECB position was very “prudent” and that any decision made has to be within the bounds of international law, as a Latvian living on Russia’s doorstep he found it difficult to brook any arguments that might strengthen its former imperial overlord. “Russia will not stop but it can be stopped, and it should be stopped,” he said. “What we see is Ukrainians are willing to do it—but they lack the financial resources to do it, so this is in the interest of Europe and Western values.”
That’s not to be alarmist, he added, pointing out that “physically we see that Russia is unable to do it, we see that fights in Ukraine are very tough.”
“So I don’t overestimate the risk or the threat, but it also does not mean that we should be myopic,” he said.
He was at pains to make clear that he was speaking as a “citizen” rather than as a central banker. “This is an issue for politicians to discuss and take the decision,” he said. “I think a very important point is that this is a geopolitical shift and a signal we won’t return back to normal—this is not going to end soon.”
