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EU intends won’t return Russian assets as long as Europe experiences economic problems

Commenting on this decision, EU leaders did not go into these legal details, but simply called the freeze on Russian assets "indefinite"

© AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert

BRUSSELS, December 12. /TASS/. The EU Council has decided to prohibit the return of Russia's frozen sovereign assets in Europe until the end of the conflict in Ukraine and until the risk of an economic deterioration in the EU persists, the statement said.

"Concretely, the regulation agreed today prohibits, on a temporary basis, any direct or indirect transfer of assets or reserves of the Central Bank of Russia (frozen in the EU - TASS), or of any legal person, entity or body acting on behalf of, or at the direction of, the Central Bank of Russia, such as the Russian National Wealth Fund," the document noted.

"The measures are temporary and should be maintained as long as the making available of significant financial and other resources to Russia to continue its actions in the context of its <…> [special military operation] against Ukraine poses, or threatens to pose, serious economic difficulties within the Union and the member states and the risk of causing further serious deterioration of the economic situation in the Union and in the member states persists," the statement said.

The text of the document does not specify any procedure for unfreezing assets. Under existing EU rules, this means that in order to unfreeze Russia’s sovereign assets, EU countries must now reach a unanimous decision.

Commenting on this decision, EU leaders — European Council President Antonio Costa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas — did not go into these legal details, but simply called the freeze on Russian assets "indefinite."

According to them, this is the first step towards a decision at the EU summit on December 18-19 to expropriate assets under the guise of a so-called "reparation loan" scheme to finance Ukraine in 2026-2027.

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