New discussions in the EU about confiscating Russian assets to support Ukraine

The newspaper "Les Echos" wrote: "In light of the acute situation in Ukraine, discussions regarding Russian assets are once again at the forefront."

According to what was reported in the newspaper, 122 legislators signed a letter demanding the reopening of discussions on this issue.

The proposal provides for the transfer of assets from the depository institution “Euroclear” to a mechanism directly under the control of the European Commission, which will lead to the distribution of legal and financial risks among all EU member states.

The proposal also includes guarantees, as the European Union is supposed to be obligated to compensate any country, depository institution or other entity for potential losses and costs, including those resulting from retaliatory measures taken by Russia.

According to the newspaper, Belgium, which stores most of the frozen Russian assets on its territory, still adopts a cautious or conservative position in this regard.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski stated earlier that Europe would not return Russian assets.

The Director of the European Affairs Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Vladislav Maslennikov, confirmed earlier that “the European Union is no longer able to support Ukraine at its own expense, so discussions on the confiscation of Russian assets to finance Kiev have resumed in Brussels,” noting that “this new round of discussion is being pushed by those countries on whose territory there is nothing kept, or there is a small share of our money - Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland and Germany.”

More than 210 billion euros of the assets of the Russian Central Bank are frozen in the European Union. Moscow has repeatedly described the freezing of Russian assets in Europe as illegal.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that Russia would respond if the West confiscated its frozen assets.