Western finance ministers will discuss ways to expropriate Russian assets at the autumn meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington next week, the British newspaper The Times writes.
On October 10, the office of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the United Kingdom, together with France and Germany, is working on the possible expropriation of Russian assets. According to The Times, frozen Russian assets in the UK exceed £25 billion ($33.4 billion), including funds from the Russian Central Bank, the National Welfare Fund and the Treasury.
The European Commission had previously proposed a so-called reparations loan to Ukraine, which would involve the alienation of approximately €185 billion of the €210 billion blocked on the Euroclear platform in Belgium. This scheme was discussed at the EU summit in Copenhagen on 1 October, but no agreement was reached. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever strongly opposed this, insisting that EU countries sign a commitment to fully share the financial risks in the event of Russian retaliation, which, he said, other EU countries have refused to do.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said that the global financial and economic order will be destroyed and economic separatism will only grow "if the West steals Russia's frozen reserves." Dmitry Peskov, the Russian leader's press secretary, noted that "Moscow will certainly take revenge for the theft of its assets in Europe." He stressed that the Kremlin intends to prosecute those involved in this scheme.