The US guarantees the end of the war in 60-90 days if Europe imposes sanctions
16 September 11:04
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the war in Ukraine could end in 60-90 days if European countries impose significant secondary duties on buyers of Russian oil. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Reuters.
Bessent once again, following Trump, said that the US administration would not impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods to stop China’s purchases of Russian oil until European countries impose their own tough duties against China and India.
“We expect the Europeans to do their part now, and we don’t move forward without the Europeans,” Bessent said,
– bessent said.
Criticism of European partners
The US Treasury Secretary sharply criticized the purchase of Russian oil by some European countries, as well as the purchase by EU countries of petroleum products refined in India from Russian raw materials at reduced prices. According to him, this helps finance the Russian-Ukrainian war.
“I guarantee you that if Europe imposed significant secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil, the war would be over in 60 or 90 days,”
– bessent emphasized, adding that this would cut off Moscow’s main source of income.
The minister noted that the United States has already imposed tariffs on Indian goods, and Trump is calling on European countries to impose duties of 50% to 100% against China and India.
The Chinese response was that oil purchases are a “sovereign matter.”
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Progress in negotiations with India
At the same time, Bessent said that tariffs on Indian goods due to Russian oil purchases have brought “significant progress” in negotiations with India. New Delhi and Washington will hold another round of talks on Tuesday amid a recent warming in rhetoric between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The United States is ready to work with European countries to consider tougher sanctions against Russian entities, including oil giants such as Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as steps to prepare for more active use of frozen Russian sovereign assets.
This could be achieved by confiscating small parts of the $300 billion in frozen assets or placing them in a special trust fund that could serve as collateral for a loan to Ukraine, he explained.
Russian money abroad
About 260 billion euros of the Central Bank of Russia’s assets have been frozen in the form of securities and cash in the jurisdictions of the G7, the EU and Australia, with more than two-thirds of them frozen in the EU. belgium controls €190 billion of assets in euros, the United States controls assets worth between $40 and $60 billion, and the United Kingdom controls about £25 billion.
Previously, the income from these assets was used to cover loans to Ukraine, but the funds themselves remained untouched. But the EU began distributing the frozen Russian billions to Western investors instead of Ukraine. So now Ukraine is apparently not even guaranteed interest.
As for private funds, the Atlantic Council, an American think tank, claimed at the beginning of the full-scale war that Russians had about $1 trillion of “dark money” abroad. According to a 2020 report, a quarter of this amount is controlled by Putin and his oligarchs. This money is generally off-limits to Ukraine’s Western partners.
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