The United States has notified European countries that it would like to use frozen Russian assets as part of a settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, The Washington Post newspaper reported, citing sources.
"The Europeans had received clear signals that the U.S. administration wants to use the assets in a settlement, raising the specter of a clash with Europe’s leaders," the newspaper notes. According to the publication, after Washington proposed its 28-point plan for settling the Ukrainian crisis in November, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and other European leaders "have faced pressure from US officials."
In late November, Bloomberg reported, citing European officials, that a clause on allocating about $100 billion in frozen Russian assets to the Ukraine Recovery Fund has been removed from the latest version of the US peace plan. The original proposal stipulated that the US would receive 50% of the profits from these assets, with unused frozen funds to be directed to a Russian-American investment fund.
On December 12, the Council of the European Union adopted a decision to permanently freeze Russia’s sovereign assets.
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“The US administration is pressuring European countries to abandon the idea of using Russian assets to support Ukraine,” a senior Ukrainian official said Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteThe plan has the strong backing of many member states, including Germany, but has drawn opposition from others, including Belgium -- home to international deposit organization Euroclear, which holds most of the assets -- whose leaders fear Russian reprisals.
The Ukrainian official said that seven countries so far opposed the plan.