Josep Borrell, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, declared on June 24 that the bloc has authorized the seizure of excess profit from frozen Russian assets. An initial 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) will be available in July, and another 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) will follow by the end of the year. Ninety percent of the earnings will be spent on weaponry and 10 percent on construction projects in Ukraine.
Fighting against the common requirement for unity between its members, the EU ignored Hungary's veto by using a legal "loophole" in the rules.
"New billions for Ukraine, this time by kicking up the European rules and leaving out Hungary," Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Szijjarto remarked. He denounced the "shameless breach of common European rules," emphasizing in a social media post that the move to seize frozen Russian assets is "a clear red line."
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with Sputnik News in late February that any actions with Russian frozen assets would cause an equal response. He added that a comparable quantity of foreign assets has been frozen in Russia.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recently said in a media briefing that Russia could take a broad range of actions to answer the Group of Seven's decision to finance Ukraine using earnings from frozen Russian assets. After the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze nearly $300 billion in Russian assets. About $207 billion is held at Euroclear, a clearinghouse based in Belgium. (Related: EU and G7 nations to seize profits from frozen Russian assets and give them to corrupt Ukraine.)
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Several experts commented on the development, warning that the EU's decision to seize Russian assets will have dire consequences. According to international relations expert Krissada Promvek of Ramkhamhaeng University in Thailand, the West's seizure of frozen Russian assets will lead to the de-dollarization of the global economy.
"Seizing Russia's financial reserves will lead to de-dollarization and collapse of the Old World Order," he said. "The Russia-Ukraine armed conflict has made it clear that the U.S. and its allies are trying to destroy Russia. The international community [in the short-term] will become more conflicted and divided between the Old World Order led by the USA and the New World Order led by Russia and China."
International relations and Russian affairs analyst Gilbert Doctorow denounced the EU's decision as "shameful" in an interview with Sputnik News. He explained that this will result in a sharp reduction of the use of the euro as a reserve currency in the Global South, as all of the nations there " fear the kind of arbitrary and illegal confiscation of their national wealth by European governments whenever it suits their purposes."
Doctorow also singled out the EPF: "It is totally hypocritical to assign to a 'peace facility' the role of financing arms and war. The ultimate goal of this 'peace initiative' is to prolong the war, at least till after the American elections in November for the sake of [U.S. President Joe] Biden's personal ambitions."
London-based foreign affairs analyst Adriel Kasonta likewise denounced Brussels' action as "bad in every aspect."
"First of all, it is illegal if we take into account the violation of the principle of sovereign immunity of the sovereign country, which is the Russian Federation. It exposes the Western double standard when it comes to the rule of law and the application of the rules to the countries equally," he told Sputnik News. "It will accelerate the movement of abandoning the currency of the dollar and euro in international transactions."
Listen to the Health Ranger Mike Adams explaining why the West's brazen theft of Russia's assets will catastrophically backfire.
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G7 planning to escalate war by using frozen Russian assets to give billions more to Ukraine.
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