Europe has $300 billion from Russia and that’s what it intends to do with the funds

On February 24 last year, Russia launched military aggression against neighboring Ukraine. The European Union, which is now aiding Ukraine with weapons, has responded by launching several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia. One of the most powerful was freeze all funds of the central bank of Russia deposited abroad, national reserves worth about 300,000 million dollars. That money It has been stuck with no use for months.

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, is now relaunching the already announced idea of ​​using these funds to pay as much as possible of the reconstruction of Ukraine After the war. It would be a way to make Russia will pay for the repairs of war even though he refused to because you can’t have that moneythat European and American authorities may have.

Michel wants to start doing as soon as possible let that money work, using it in the best way so that it generates benefits in the form of interest. those benefits you could go to ukraine now because what was blocked to Russia would remain intact. But Michel is also looking for the legal reserve that would allow everything blocked in the Russian central bank to be used in the reconstruction of Ukraine.

The cost of rebuilding

The World Bank released a report in the summer assuring that this post-war reconstruction would cost a minimum of 350,000 million dollars.

It is an estimate made in September, which since then it just increased and that grows every day that the war continues. In addition, Russia has launched deliberate attacks on key Ukrainian infrastructure in recent months, such as energy, which will be among the first to be rebuilt.

In an interview with the British newspaper ‘Financial Times’, Michel said he thinks “A Matter of Justice” that at least the benefits that this money can bring are used for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

But he acknowledges that “it must be done in accordance with legal principles, that is very clear”. Michel says in the same interview that he wants the leaders to continue the negotiations start that idea. The next European summit will take place in just over two weeks.

The idea is not new. European Chancellor Josep Borrell had already launched it months ago.

But Borrell didn’t just suggest using the benefits provided by those 300,000 million (the first step promoted by Michel) but all confiscated by Russia.

Create a common fund​

The European Commission also proposed last year to put all the money confiscated from Russia, which is held in accounts in London, Brussels, Paris or New York, in a common fund which would be managed in order to obtain the maximum profitability possible.

The idea is that spending those benefits would not be illegal, but there are questions about the legality of using the funds confiscated from Russia without a judicial filing, which would be the United Nations International Court of Justice in The Hagueit will rule on the legality of both the confiscation and use of that money in Ukraine.

In case The Hague says these funds cannot be touched, the $300,000 million would be returned to Russia, without touching, once the war is over and a peace treaty is signedbut profits generated from such funds will not be returned to you.

If The Hague says you can touch them, nothing will be returned: neither the money nor the benefits.

Brussels, especially for clarion

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