Countries sympathetic to Russia are demanding the EU drop any notion it might have about a wholesale confiscation of Moscow's state assets,
Politico reports.
Representatives of China, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are privately pushing the EU to continue resisting pressure from the U.S. and U.K. to seize more than €200 billion of Russian state assets it immobilized after February 2022's invasion of Ukraine to help Kyiv's reconstruction efforts, four officials with knowledge of the proceedings told POLITICO.
“These countries are very skeptical about the idea,” said one of the officials, granted anonymity because the talks are so sensitive. The concern is, “this would create a precedent” ― in other words, these countries would fear they could be next to lose out.
For the time being, any plan to seize Europe's frozen Russian assets and use the money to help Ukraine is on the back burner. Western EU countries in particular are fierce in their opposition for fear of legal ramifications and the potential destabilization of the eurozone.
But with Washington and London keen ― as much as anything because tight budgets and messy domestic politics mean a different way of funding Ukraine's flagging war effort and reconstruction is an attractive option ― and the matter up for discussion at next month's meeting of G7 finance ministers, the countries that don't consider Vladimir Putin an enemy aren't complacent.
They have already seen the EU put forward a more limited proposal to skim off the profits accrued by investing the assets, worth about €2.5-3 billion per year, with 90 percent of the proceeds going to buy weapons for Ukraine.
