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EU Accelerates De-Dollarization by Stealing Russian Money

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Banknotes and coins from all over the world - Sputnik International, 1920, 25.06.2024
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The EU will send €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in profits from the frozen assets of Russia's Central Bank to the "European Peace Facility" in order to meet the Kiev regime's military needs.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell announced on June 24 that the bloc has approved grabbing windfall income from frozen Russian assets.
According to Borrell, €1.4 billion will be available in the course of the next month, and another €1 billion by the end of the year.
"The decision is shameful," Gilbert Doctorow, an international relations and Russian affairs analyst, told Sputnik. "It is totally hypocritical to assign to a "Peace Facility" the role of financing arms and war. The ultimate goal of this 'peace initiative' is to prolong the war, at least till after the American elections in November for the sake of Mr Biden's personal ambitions."
Ninety percent of the revenues will be spent on arms and just 10 percent on construction projects in Ukraine.
Going against the usual requirement for unanimity between its members, the EU snubbed Hungary's veto by using a legal "loophole".
The photo shows Euro banknotes in Dortmund, western Germany, on January 27, 2020. - Sputnik International, 1920, 13.03.2024
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Theft of Frozen Russian Assets May Lead to Financial Crisis in the West
"New billions for Ukraine. This time by kicking up the European rules and leaving out Hungary," Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Szijjártó commented earlier on Monday
He slammed the "shameless breach of common European rules," stressing in a social media post that "This is a clear red line."
After the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze almost $300 billion in Russian assets. Around $207 billion are held at Euroclear, a clearinghouse based in Belgium.

"The result will be to sharply reduce use of the Euro as a reserve currency by countries of the Global South, who all fear the kind of arbitrary and illegal confiscation of their national wealth by European governments whenever it suits their purposes," Doctorow warned.

One-dollar notes. - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.06.2024
Analysis
Will Average Western Citizens Pay the Price for G7’s Theft of Russian Funds?
Brussels' decision is "bad" in every respect, said Adriel Kasonta, a London-based foreign affairs analyst and former chairman of the International Affairs Committee at the Bow Group think-tank.
"First of all, it is illegal, if we take into account the violation of the principle of sovereign immunity of the sovereign country, which is the Russian Federation," Kasonta told Sputnik.
"It exposes the western double standard when it comes to the rule of law and the application of the rules to the countries equally," he continued.

That "is clearly detrimental because it serves as a boost to the de-dollarization movement," the expert stressed. "It will… accelerate the movement of abandoning the currency of the dollar and euro in international transactions."

Russia has repeatedly warned it will take retaliatory measures in response to any attempts to expropriate its financial resources by the West, and that it would perceive any form of grab as "theft".
Any actions with Russian frozen assets will trigger a symmetrical response, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told Sputnik in late February, adding that a similar quantity of foreign assets have been frozen in Russia.
Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a press briefing that Russia could take a wide variety of measures to respond to the G7 decision to fund Ukraine using profits from frozen Russian assets.
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