US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he had reached an agreement with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on using profits from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.
Biden was asked whether he and Macron had discussed the issue and whether they had reached an agreement, and he replied, “Yes and yes.”
The G7 countries and the European Union are considering how to use profits from Russian assets frozen in the West to provide Ukraine with a large loan now and provide financing for Kiev in 2025.
About 260 billion euros ($280.9 billion) of Russian Central Bank funds are frozen around the world, most of them in the European Union, and these funds generate profits ranging between 2.5 and 3.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion and $3.78 billion) annually.
The EU says it is not owed to Russia under contracts and therefore represents a windfall.
Source of revenue
The idea – which the United States supports – is to use this profit to be a fixed source of revenue to service a large loan worth $50 billion that can be raised from the market, and Russia says that any transfer of profits from its frozen funds would be theft.
Exploiting profits from Russian assets raises concerns in some countries, but a US Treasury Department official said – last Tuesday – that the United States and its partners in the G7 are making progress in this regard.
For her part, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said – last month – that providing a loan to Ukraine backed by the proceeds of frozen Russian sovereign assets is the “main option” that the G7 leaders will consider in June, but she added that she does not want to “rule out any possible option.” “.
Yellen said the plan has broad support and “there is still a lot of work to be done” to achieve it, and that the plan needs to be approved by the 27-member European Union.
She added: “This (issue) must be crystallized within the European Union, so that it becomes a proposal that is approved by the bloc, and this is what many countries support. It is not something that is taken for granted. Therefore, I do not say that it is a completely completed deal.”
