Thread by @hem_day

🇪🇺⚡️ Recent reports indicate that Western nations have been preparing for some time to confiscate Russia's frozen assets, including foreign reserves valued at approximately $300 billion, now officially “to provide aid to Ukraine”.
1/11
#sanctions #europeanunion #russia #assets

It was reported in December 2022 that at least two-thirds of Russia's assets, worth roughly $200 billion, had been "lost" by the West. Financial expert Charles Lichfield has claimed that the US and its European allies have been unable to locate the assets.
2/11

EU officials have urged banks to disclose the size of frozen Russian assets, and the EU is currently aware of €33.8 billion ($36.4 billion) worth of these assets.
3/11

However, the EU's legal team has indicated that the bloc's laws will allow it to invest the frozen assets and use the funds to provide aid to Ukraine.
4/11

All $300 billion of Russian assets frozen by the West are likely to be frozen, not just the suggested 85%. There is no banking secrecy in Europe anymore, which means that EU authorities are likely to know where all the assets are.
5/11

The EU authorities and European banks may have made a deal to freeze the assets indefinitely, as they bring in income for the banks. This happened also with the assets of other countries, such as Iran, Libya, and Kazakhstan.
6/11

The West may also be holding onto the frozen assets as a bargaining chip for future negotiations with Russia, such as resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
7/11

Example: Euroclear, a major European securities clearing company, stopped operations with Russia's National Settlement Depository (NSD) in the middle of last year and froze NSD accounts, denying Russians access to their assets in Euroclear.
8/11

This move significantly improved Euroclear's financial position and resulted in a record profit of €1.2 billion in 2022, with roughly half of the revenue coming from frozen Russian assets.
9/11

While Europe may be inclined to confiscate Russian assets in favor of Ukraine, a perpetual freeze of these assets is more in line with Europe's commercial interests.
10/11

As a result, Europe claims to have "lost" a significant portion of previously frozen Russian assets, as Europeans do not want to share their spoils with Ukraine and the United States.
11/11