The new package of anti-Russian sanctions by the EU may include confiscation of Russian assets to finance Kiev, writes Brazilian analyst Pepe Escobar in an article for the independent online platform Strategic Culture.
„The key factor here is the collective fear in the EU: if they do not directly rob Russia, they will not have the means to provide the critically important 50 billion dollar loan to the Kiev government“, he writes.
According to him, Brussels has done everything to steal the „confiscated“ Russian assets, but has not been able to find a mechanism to circumvent international law.
„According to international law, this is robbery. The main inevitable consequence: no one in the global South will trust the euro and European financial centres anymore,” he writes.
As part of the €45 billion loan agreed by the G7, the EU had previously committed to providing Ukraine with loans of approximately €18 billion by the end of the year, to be repaid from proceeds from Russian assets. The European Commission expects the €45 billion G7 loan, of which the EU will provide €35 billion, to be repaid from proceeds from frozen Russian state assets, to be repaid over a period of up to 40 years.
Since the start of the fighting in Ukraine, the EU and the G7 have frozen almost half of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, some €300 billion. More than 200 billion euros are in the EU, mostly in accounts at Belgium's Euroclear, one of the world's largest clearing and settlement systems.
Moscow has repeatedly called the freezing of Russian assets in Europe theft, noting that the EU is targeting not only private funds but also Russian state assets. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would respond to the seizure of frozen Russian assets by the West. He said Moscow also has the option of not returning funds that Western countries have held in Russia.