Late concession by Belgium paved way for deal on using profits to buy ammo for Kyiv’s war effort.
The EU approved a plan to use the profits generated by investing frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine.
Ambassadors meeting in Brussels on Wednesday gave the go-ahead after Belgium signaled a climbdown on the way it treats tax revenue on the cash — the last major obstacle to deal.
The profits generated by investing Russia’s assets immobilized in Belgium— where a large part of the assets frozen in Europe are kept — are worth between €2.5 billion and €3 billion per year.
It’s a very dangerous game to play as this signals that investing in the Western monetary system means that your money can be used as a political weapon at any time. It takes away all the credibility of our banking system. Not just for Russia but also for China etc.
That was also the reason that until now we only froze the Russian assets and didn’t seize them. And it seems like this is only a seize of yearly profits, not of the actual assets.
Good, everyone should know that Europe doesn’t fuck around with Countries that commit war crimes
Good one dude
Give them time. They have baggage and jumping too soon could be problematic.
Good pic choice for your reply.
The major underlying issue here is that it is not about war crimes as you stated. In fact war crimes have absolutely nothing to do with this as proven with a single image.
It is about using money as a weapon.
Yeah this comment is flagrantly ignoring the fact that Russia is an agressor that is invading a country and committing genocide and threatening nuclear war.
They are just using the interests that this frozen capital generates and using that (instead of continuing to pay the interests to the Russians).
I don’t know a thing about that but isn’t it just stealing money? And if they are already stealing money why not steal all of it?
They are not taking away any money from the existing funds. And that is the important thing IMO. Rather, they are using that large amount of money and investing it (safely) so that they generate surplus money that they use. Hiwever, they arent taking away money that is currently there.
I mean, freezing, doing anything other then leaving it alone does that to some degree.
My bigger concern is that l’d rather Russia’s funds be used for reconstruction.
I think that it will be easier to get political support for weapons in grant form than for reconstruction. Ukraine’s going to need both.
Houses for people to return to and safe drinking water don’t advance strategic goals*.
*actually they do if you want stability & peace but those aren’t the real goals of geopolitics
I’m not saying that governments will necessarily take issue.
I’m just saying that that has to also get past publics and their representatives in legislatures.
I’m not saying that it’s impossible to do – people have called this a “Marshall Plan 2.0”, and the original was – ultimately, though not as initially presented – both done and overwhelmingly grants. But my point is that if Russia isn’t actively-invading a country in Europe, I think that it’s gonna be harder to get the political momentum for funds than if Russia is doing so.
And we’re not talking pocket change – it’s hundreds of billions. Russia’s frozen funds are already in the hundreds-of-billions, so that’s a significant chunk of that covered already.
I’d rather have the more-difficult-to-raise-money-for things have the easier-to-get money aimed at them.
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Which is a win for China and BRICS