Washington said this would undermine talks with Moscow on the Ukraine peace deal, according to the Polish PM
The US has told the EU to “leave the [frozen] Russian assets alone” as any appropriation of the funds could undermine talks with Moscow in the Ukraine peace talks, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has claimed.
After the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, Kiev’s Western backers froze approximately $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets, of which $246 billion has been immobilized by EU member states.
Discussions concerning the immobilized Russian assets have intensified within the bloc in recent weeks after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed using the funds to back a “reparations loan” to Ukraine.
Speaking following a meeting between Ukrainian and US negotiators in Berlin on Monday, Tusk stated that there was a “very clear” difference of opinion between Washington and Brussels on the issue of the frozen Russian funds.
“The Americans are saying ‘Leave these Russian assets alone’,” according to the Polish prime minister. According to him, Washington is concerned that if the EU seized the immobilized funds, Russia would take a harder negotiating position in talks to end the Ukraine conflict.
Last week, EU member states voted to keep the Russian sovereign funds temporarily frozen. The bloc’s leadership had to invoke emergency powers to overcome the opposition of member states, including Hungary and Slovakia.
Belgium has also expressed concerns that it would be left in the lurch by the bloc in the face of Russian lawsuits. The Euroclear depositary based in the country holds the bulk of the frozen Russian assets.
Moscow has characterized any use of its immobilized funds as “theft.” On Friday, the Bank of Russia announced that it was filing a lawsuit seeking $230 billion in compensation from Euroclear.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that an “urge to steal must be genetic in many of our Western ‘colleagues’,” citing the seizures of Iran’s and Venezuela’s assets by the West.
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