The G7 countries privately state that the issue of full confiscation of Russia’s assets is no longer under discussion. This was reported by the Financial Times (FT).
“While Ukraine continues to push for the full confiscation of Russia’s assets, G7 representatives privately say the topic is no longer on the table. Instead, they are exploring alternative ways to extract funding from the frozen assets,” the FT publication said.
The newspaper noted that European countries want to stay away from anything that could affect the assets themselves, “for fear of retribution.”
According to the newspaper, the EU’s plan involves using “windfall profits” generated by Russian assets held by the Euroclear depositary to allow community countries to make joint arms purchases for Ukraine. This option is considered “politically less risky and legally more justified” as it does not affect the assets themselves, experts interviewed by the newspaper said.
Earlier, journalist and columnist of The New York Times Christopher Caldwell said that the decision to confiscate the frozen Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine would seriously harm the United States. In his opinion, Washington risks feeling “an unprecedented bout of pain” from its 34-trillion-dollar national debt.