Germany, France, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank are still expressing doubts regarding the confiscation of Russia’s frozen assets as it possibly brings “difficult” legal consequences and affects the eurozone’s reputation.
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EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen walks in Ukraine, on Saturday, February 24, 2024. (AP)
According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, although the matter of using profits from Russia’s frozen assets for Ukraine’s reconstruction was brought up by US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit, the European Union remains undecided about its outcome.
The newspaper noted that Germany, France, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank are still expressing doubts regarding the confiscation of Russia’s frozen assets as a result of it possibly bringing “difficult” legal consequences and affecting the eurozone’s reputation.
Simultaneously, the United Kingdom voted in favor of the idea but the summit’s final statement contained provisions only regarding the matter of boosting efforts to review the procedure’s technical aspects.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged the EU to undertake “bolder” actions and said that the G7 should seek lawful ways to seize the assets and transfer the money to Ukraine.
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In an article for The Sunday Times newspaper, Sunak said: “We must be bolder in seizing the hundreds of billions of frozen Russian assets. That starts with taking the billions in interest that these assets are collecting and sending it to Ukraine instead. And then, with the G7, we must find lawful ways to seize the assets themselves and get those funds to Ukraine too”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry asserted in an interview for RIA Novosti that the EU’s plan to seize the profits from frozen Russian assets and transfer them over to Ukraine would be considered a breach of international law.
“[The EU’s] invention of openly fraudulent schemes for the seizure of income from Russian assets is dictated by the need to create the illusion of legitimacy over attacks on our property and thereby camouflage what is an outright theft,” the Ministry stated.
It added that EU members “clearly do not want to continue paying for the doomed ‘Ukrainian project’ from their own wallets,” which is “why they are so tempted by the idea of spending funds stolen from our country to support the Zelensky regime.”
This comes after former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev declared that Moscow will seek “revenge” for the Western sanctions, a day after the EU revealed a 13th set of sanctions against Russia.
The latest sanctions aim at 500 targets, including the Mir credit card system, which was established by Russia to avoid depending on US-based networks or businesses.
“The reason (behind the sanctions) is clear: the worse it is for Russian citizens, the better it is for the Western world,” Medvedev said on social media, adding: “We all just need to remember this and take revenge on them wherever possible. They are our enemies.”
He urged Russians to “create difficulties in the economy for (the West) and foment public unhappiness towards the incompetent policies of Western authorities.”
