Europe wants to spend, the US is slowing down. Will Russian assets remain untouched?

The US administration has informed its G7 partners that it does not intend to join the initiative to expand the use of frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on Monday. According to the agency, this may strengthen opponents of the initiative within the EU.

As Bloomberg reports, citing people privy to talks on this topic, US representatives conveyed this position to their European counterparts during last week's annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington. They were to inform that, at least for now, they would not join the EU initiative on the use of frozen assets, justifying it with concerns about the stability of their market.

The agency comments that this attitude is a blow to the EU, which was trying to persuade the other G7 members to take joint action in this field. It also gives ammunition to those countries within the EU that have resisted the expansion of the use of Russian assets, including: Belgium.

Although there are various estimates of the value of frozen Russian money in the US – the most common estimate is approximately $5 billion. – it is known that they constitute a small fraction of the total Russian assets frozen by the G7 countries, whose value is estimated at over USD 300 billion. By far the largest part of them is located in the European Union countries – mainly Belgium and France. Other parts are located in Japan and the UK.

According to Bloomberg, the European Commission is currently preparing a detailed proposal for a mechanism for using frozen assets to grant an asset-backed loan to Ukraine. So far, the EU and G7 partners have granted such a loan – worth USD 50 billion. – secured only by profits from Russian securities. Opponents of wider use of assets cite concerns about the potential to discourage international investors from European markets.

The US attitude represents a change in Washington's current attitude. Back in September, Finance Minister Scott Bessent declared that he was open to using Russian assets frozen in the US, although he did not clearly say that he would do so. In September, politicians from both parties submitted a bill to Congress that would confiscate assets in the US and pay interest on them to Ukraine every 90 days.

The representative of the Ukrainian authorities expressed hope that the US would take this step in an interview with PAP in September after the meeting of the presidents of both countries in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The diplomat from Kiev argued that the US would give an impulse or even put pressure on the EU to accelerate action in this matter.

One of the European diplomats told PAP that there has been a political breakthrough in the discussions on this topic in the European Union in recent weeks, although he warned that ultimately reaching a technical solution may take many more months.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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