Borrell: EU countries should consider seizing russia's foreign exchange reserves to rebuild Ukraine
The countries of the European Union should consider seizing russia's frozen foreign exchange reserves and sending them to Ukraine after the war.
EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell stated this in an interview with the Financial Times.
Borrel said the United States had taken control of billions of dollars in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank, in part to potentially compensate victims of terrorism, as well as humanitarian aid to the country, and it would be logical to consider such moves with russia's reserves.
"I would be very much in favour because it is full of logic. We have the money in our pockets, and someone has to explain to me why it is good for the Afghan money and not good for the Russian money," he said.
At the beginning of the war, the EU and its allies froze foreign exchange reserves in the hundreds of billions of dollars stored in the accounts of the Central Bank of russia. russia said in March about $300 billion of its gold and foreign exchange reserves in excess of $600 billion had been frozen.
Borrel said the question of how to pay for Ukraine's reconstruction is one of the key political issues, given the "incredible amount of money" that will be involved. He would like to see a discussion on methods of ensuring "war compensations" came from russia.
Borrell said the decision would not be unprecedented, citing a US decision to allocate $3.5 billion in frozen assets of the Afghan central bank for needs, including humanitarian aid and compensation to the families of 9/11 victims.
