Washington said the move would undermine talks with Moscow on the Ukraine peace deal, according to the Polish PM<\/p>\n
The US has told the EU to \u201cleave the [frozen] Russian assets alone\u201d as any appropriation of the funds could undermine talks with Moscow in the Ukraine peace talks, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has claimed.
\nAfter the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, Kiev\u2019s Western backers froze approximately $300 billion in\u00a0Moscow\u2019s\u00a0sovereign assets, of which $246 billion has been immobilized by EU member states.
\nDiscussions 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 \u201creparations loan\u201d to Ukraine.
\nSpeaking following a meeting between Ukrainian and US negotiators in Berlin on Monday, Tusk stated that there was a \u201cvery clear\u201d difference of opinion between Washington and Brussels on the issue of the frozen Russian funds.
\n\u201cThe Americans are saying \u2018Leave these Russian assets alone\u2019,\u201d according to the Polish prime minister. According to him, Washington is concerned that if the EU seized the immobilized funds, Russia would take a less amenable negotiating position in talks to end the Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
UK plotting to undermine Trump\u2019s Ukraine peace efforts \u2013 Russian intelligence<\/p>\n
Last week, EU member states voted for the latest temporary freeze on Russian sovereign funds. The bloc\u2019s leadership had to invoke emergency powers to overcome the opposition of member states, including Hungary and Slovakia.
\nBelgium 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 assets.
\nMoscow has condemned any use of its immobilized funds as \u201ctheft.\u201d On Friday, the Bank of Russia announced that it was filing a lawsuit seeking $230 billion in compensation from Euroclear.
\nOn Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that an \u201curge to steal must be genetic in many of our Western \u2018colleagues\u2019,\u201d citing the seizure of Iranian and Venezuelan assets by the West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington said the move would undermine talks with Moscow on the Ukraine peace deal, according to the Polish PM The US has told the EU to \u201cleave the [frozen] Russian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t