The US is ready to provide Ukraine with a $50bn loan against profits from frozen Russian assets – FT
5 June 2024 11:47
The United States is ready to provide Ukraine with a large loan of $50 billion, which will be paid from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets. This is stated in the Financial Times article, according to "Komersant Ukrainian"
However, this requires the European Union to extend sanctions against Russia indefinitely until the war is over. Currently, EU sanctions on Russian state assets are reviewed every 6 months.
The US insists on reaching an agreement on a funding mechanism using frozen Russian assets before the G7 summit next week, where this issue is likely to be a key one in terms of support for Ukraine. Washington is demanding that all EU states, including Hungary, approve an indefinite extension of sanctions against Russia, otherwise the US may be left solely responsible for providing loans to Kyiv.
It is proposed that the United States, along with other G7 countries, should provide Ukraine with a loan approximately equal to the expected “super-profits” from hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian assets frozen in the West. It is estimated to be up to $50 billion.
Russian money abroad
Some €260bn 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 €190bn of assets in euros, the US controls assets worth between $40bn and $60bn, and the UK controls around £25bn.
As for the funds of individuals, the Atlantic Council, a US 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.
