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Macron betrays Merz on expropriation of frozen Russian assets — FT

"He knows that there will be a price to pay for that", also said a senior EU diplomat

LONDON, December 21. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron, abandoning the idea of expropriating frozen Russian assets, has betrayed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the Financial Times reported quoting a diplomatic source.

"Macron betrayed Merz, and he knows that there will be a price to pay for that," said a senior EU diplomat with direct knowledge of Thursday’s talks. "But he’s so weak that he had no other choice but to fold in behind Giorgia Meloni."

On Friday, the FT said citing a European diplomat that France and Italy played a key role in the European Commission's refusal to expropriate frozen Russian assets. Macron and Meloni were sceptic whether their parliaments would support the scheme.

The EU summit failed to agree on the expropriation of frozen Russian assets under the guise of a "reparation loan" to Kiev. It decided to provide Ukraine with an interest-free 90 billion euro loan raised from each of the EU country instead.