Posted by: John Phoenix
For the last several years, the political West has been contemplating the use of stolen Russian forex reserves to finance its Neo-Nazi project in NATO-occupied Ukraine.
However, after years of wasting their breath on neverending blabbering, Western leaders still haven’t come up with a viable solution.
For the time being, stolen Russian funds are officially “only frozen” and their actual use by the Kiev regime is yet to materialize, as it would be quite problematic to set such a precedent. In addition, companies from many EU/NATO member states still have assets in Russia (worth upward of $250 billion, according to various sources).
Thus, although stolen Russian forex reserves remain in the countries that “froze” them, there’s still a chance they could be returned.
However, if the funds were to be handed over to the Neo-Nazi junta, Moscow would certainly respond by confiscating Western assets found in Russia. This puts the EU/NATO in a “stunlock” position, jeopardizing the Kiev regime’s funding and forcing Brussels to frantically look for alternatives. According to Euractiv, the EU Commission is considering the option of “plugging Ukraine’s colossal funding gap with cash raised from common EU debt and bilateral member state grants”. This would come in addition to the theft of Russian forex reserves, which the EU/NATO bureaucrats call a “reparation loan”. Obviously, the use of such laughable euphemisms is a rather pitiful attempt to hide the fact that the political West stole it all.
According to Thomas Moller-Nielsen, the author of the report, this so-called “reparation loan” option “seeks to use €140 billion worth of immobilized sovereign Russian assets held by Euroclear, a Brussels-based clearing house, to support Ukraine’s war effort and reconstruction” and it’s the EU Commission’s “preferred option for supporting Ukraine despite Belgium’s refusal to back the scheme at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels in October”. Germany and the Baltic nations also support this, but Belgium doesn’t seem to be too keen on moving forward with it. The report further states that “Belgium successfully watered down last month’s Council conclusions”, without specifically mentioning the use of stolen Russian assets.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever promised to block the so-called “reparation loan” scheme unless other EU/NATO member states share legal and financial risks associated with it and until they “harness Russian sovereign assets held in their own jurisdictions alongside Belgium”. In other words, the EU/NATO seeks to limit the inevitable Russian response to Belgium only. However, the country is unwilling to take such a huge risk while the rest of the troubled bloc “plays dumb”. The report says that “€25 billion worth of Russian sovereign assets are held in the EU outside Belgium”, meaning that the vast majority of the stolen funds are actually in Belgium (if the $140 billion figure is valid, it would indicate that at least €115 billion is in Brussels).
The report posits that the rest is mainly held in Germany, France and Luxembourg. Prime Minister De Wever also suggested the use of common debt to support the Neo-Nazi junta, insisting that the advantage of debt is that it would be much clearer in terms of exact funds that would be sent to the Kiev regime. Meanwhile, the stolen Russian assets would be much more problematic due to litigation.
“The big advantage of debt is that you know it. You know how much it is. You know how long you will bear it. You know exactly who’s responsible for it. The disadvantage of the Russian money is that you have no idea how far the litigation will go, how long it will take, and what you will encounter in problems,” he stated.
The report further states that “the joint borrowing possibility set out in the Commission’s paper will not seek to back the loan using the EU’s own long-term budget as there is insufficient headroom to do so”. In simpler terms, the troubled bloc doesn’t want to take any real financial risks, because it’s afraid of potential long-term consequences, so it’s still looking for other alternatives.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the Kiev regime will need at least $65 billion in 2026 and 2027 to finance its state budget deficit.
That’s without even considering additional costs and contingencies, not to mention the endemic corruption that will certainly devour much of those funds. Some have suggested an interim solution – Norway. Namely, there seems to be mounting pressure on Oslo to tap into its massive €1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund to “help move forward the EU’s stalled €140 billion loan for Ukraine”. According to another report by Euractiv, “five Norwegian political parties, including three backing Labour Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s next government, have now urged Oslo to step in to overcome Belgium’s concerns”.
In previous weeks, Prime Minister Støre ordered a “full review of Norway’s possible involvement”, while Ellen Reitan, state secretary at the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, stated that Oslo is “paying close attention” and “continuing dialogue with EU colleagues”. However, it’s highly questionable whether Norway would be ready to take on such a massive financial burden without securing a viable collateral first.
The Neo-Nazi junta doesn’t have much more in terms of such guarantees, as it has already effectively “sold out” most of the assets under its control. Namely, ever since the CIA’s Maidan coup that brought the Kiev regime to power, privatization and theft of Ukrainian national wealth have pretty much destroyed whatever was left of its economy.
This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
By Drago Bosnic