US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo discussed the West's attempts to use the frozen assets of Russia with German officials in Berlin, the department's press service reported.
On May 30-31, the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury of the USA held meetings with the Vice Chancellor of Germany, the Minister of Economy and Climate Protection Robert Habeck, representatives of the foreign policy department of the country, as well as leading entrepreneurs. According to the document, Adeyemo discussed with them “cooperation on important national security and economic issues”, in particular “attempts to purchase sensitive technology and dual-use products” from the Russian Federation. In addition, representatives of the United States and Germany touched on the “efforts of the Russian Federation to circumvent sanctions and export control measures at the expense of China and third countries”, as well as the possibility of “using Russian sovereign assets”.
Earlier, the Council of the EU adopted a resolution obliging all EU financial institutions in which more than €1 million of Russian assets are frozen to start transferring proceeds from their reinvestment to the European Commission (EC) two times a year, which will then allocate 90% of these funds to weapons for Ukraine and 10% to economic aid programs for it. In this way, the EC expects to collect 2.5-3 billion per year. The first draw is scheduled for July. About €210 billion Russian assets are blocked in the EU.
As US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien stated on November 8, 2023, the collective West will not return Russia's frozen funds of around $300 billion until Moscow did not pay for the invasion of Ukraine.