Europe Agrees to Give Russia's Billions to Ukraine

Newsweek ^ | May 21, 2024 | Isabel van Brugen

[canuck_conservative]

Russian central bank assets.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said the move will hand Ukraine up to €3 billion (about $3.3 billion) this year.

"We have approved in the EU using revenues from Russia's central bank's frozen assets to help Ukraine," wrote Lipavsky on X, formerly Twitter. "Up to €3B only this year, 90% goes for Ukraine's military. Russia must pay for its war damages."

The financial assets were frozen shortly after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Reuters reported this month that the EU has estimated that by 2027, windfall profits from Russia's central bank assets frozen in the world's largest trading bloc could reach €20 billion (about $21.7 billion). The frozen assets have been gaining a huge amount of interest because they are stuck.

More than two-thirds of Russia's frozen sovereign assets are stashed in the EU...

[ransomnote]

In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Europe Agrees to Give Russia's Billions to Ukraine , bert wrote:

“Do not take counsel of your fears” General George Patton

“Fear is the mind killer” Bene Gessert maxim

How about, "Think before you act" or "Actions have consequences"?

So you dismiss wisdom because you mistake it for fear and advise us to ignore it?

I've never read that Patton threw men into the war machinery to be ground up for nothing. Quoting Patton out of context doesn't make you look smart or brave.

[buwaya]

Russia was treated very generously.
Russia was granted MFN (most favored nation) trade status in 1996. China didnt get it till 2001. MFN is the golden ticket to the US market.
Russia was admitted to the WTO in 2012, not justified by its economic significance, but it was given anyway.
Russia developed its principal industries, oil and gas, to its present level with massive (relative to its GDP) foreign investment.

It is Russian propaganda to blame the west for its troubles, and their stoking of resentments, while they exported retained earnings of $300B. They were given the ball, and could have run with it, as China did.

Russian complaints sound like the whining of a spoiled child, given everything, but resentful that it cant grab the last sweet in the bowl.

[tennmountainman]

YouCraynee Victory Dance.

[Vigilanteman]

I was scratching my head just trying to figure out what action BRICS has actually taken . . . and YOU summed it up quite nicely.

It is a pipe dream for a part of the world that has to mostly export their best and brightest.

[moovova]

"Those concerned about the US taxpayer "on the hook" should be quite relieved now"

Seriously? You think this will turn off the US taxpayer Ukrainski spigot? Pipe dream...

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Couldn’t disagree more.

What is emerging isn’t an instantly developed financial system, but a realignment against the west.

No tree is chopped down with just one blow of the axe.

It will not instantly and universally replace the dollar as reserve currency, nor the west’s SWIFT and banking system.

It is never the less causing realignment, and shifting the settlement of trade into currencies other than the dollar.

Every month there is additional interest and movement toward BRICs alignment and a growing shift from using the dollar exclusively.

I find it significant that there is a division between the western high debt financial states and the commodity rich states. This particularly so at the end of a debt super cycle and a shift from public to privately owned assets.

This is obviously simply my observation and opinion and may prove wrong or not.

Best.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

What is exactly is Russia going to do? Use nukes? NATO has nukes, so that isnt an option. Conventionally, NATO is far better armed and trained than Ukraine and has a larger economy and manpower reserves. Russia can be bottled up in port navally. So Russia can seethe and cope like it has been thus far.

[buwaya]

The US aid mix is moving even more from financial aid to more exclusively equipment and armaments. The EU has always provided more straight $ aid than the US, and this will increase that contribution.

This is beneficial to the US in several ways. It provides justification for expanding the capacity of its high tech armaments industries, which everyone agrees is undersized for modern requirements.

A similar thing happened in 1915-1917 and 1936-41. Euro arms purchases financed the expansion of US arms industries prior to US entry in WW1 and WW2.

[wastedyears]

Will there ever be “enough” money sent to that meat grinder?

[buwaya]

China also has a high debt-gdp ratio.
Since China is the 500-lb gorilla in BRICS this does not make for a clear advantage.

[Cronos]

I wrote in post #33

BRICS are all talk, little action. The actions that they have taken are, laughable:
1. The New Development Bank (NDB), also called the BRICS Development Bank was created as an alternative to the World Bank.
The few loans that the NDB actually gave out have by the way been in … US Dollars as currency.

2. They had meetings to talk about an alternative to the dollar, but no way is India going to take the yuan, leave alone the rouble, as an alternative.

3. India has more tariffs and legal bans on Chinese trade than the USA and European countries have put on China - combined.

you are talking about "a re-alignment against the west" -- this has been talked about for some time and it's not happening. The reason is that China and India have their own views of a multipolar work

The dollar will ultimately be "replaced" but it won't be by the "BRICS" but rather by a bunch of different currencies?

As to "every month there is additional interest and movement..." - that's purely in the reporter's heads. There are no actions because they don't have anything in common

finally, you state "western high debat financial states and commodity rich states"

-- lots of non-western countries are both financial and high debt states

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Thanks for sharing your views.

[moovova]

Interesting. Whether US dollars or war materiel, it's still costing the taxpayer. But, hopefully, it IS allowing the US to replenish its armaments with new and modern equipment. I'm just not confident the Biden admin is actually resupplying us as he should be. Surely, the military industrial complex is doing their thing, and pushing for the additional business. Because I hate to think of us as practically "disarmed".

"A similar thing happened in 1915-1917 and 1936-41."

That statement scares the heck out of me. Look what happened shortly thereafter...

[Cronos]

BRICS started as a Goldman Sachs marketing campaign. The new one is “MEERKAT” or “frontier markets”.

Basic marketing BS.

I invested in funds investing in the Indian stock market and they were good. But the Brazilian and Chinese stock markets have underperformed.

China also launched its one belt one road initiative and then loaned massively to countries to get them endebted to China. They’ve scaled back on both.

I still think China and India and even Brazil can improve their economies significantly. The best would be for them to be like Modi’s India or pre-Xi jinping China —> keep your head down and focus on business.

[Cronos]

moovova “Look what happened shortly thereafter..”

But the US rearming was not the cause of what happened after, rather it ensured that the USA didn’t end up like “the man in the high castle”.

[canuck_conservative]

Trust a Putin Groupie to support every asinine act of a monstrous dictator. Disgusting.

[Kazan]

Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to get its ass kicked:

All For Nothing. Ukraine Losses Their Counter Offensive Gains. Ru Captures Klishchiivka & Robotyna.

Russian Forces Fully Capture 100% of Robotyne & Netailove | Russian Soldier Survives 3 FPV Drones

[wildcard_redneck]

I’m not a Putin groupie, I’m an American patriot that realize this war is only for the benefit of the military industrial complex and Marxist. The left has seized power in America and we’re under an illegitimate government yet fools like you cheer on this war of distraction and waste. I look forward to the day when you have to eat so much crow.

[Kazan]

"The Neocons wanted Ukraine to kill Russians, with no regard to how many Ukrainians would be left.

Then, they even bragged how the Ukrainians would fight to the very last man – which we are rapidly approaching.

There has never been any consideration for Ukrainian lives, and Zelensky is counting on being swept away to Miami when the last Ukrainian falls." -- Martin Armstong.