2024-04-22 04:25:01
Dn the trenches of Ukraine, under heavy fire from Russian cannons, the soldiers have more immediate concerns than the negotiations underway in Washington. But what played out in the American Congress on Saturday April 20 did not leave them indifferent. After six months of Republican obstruction, the House of Representatives adopted a support plan for Ukraine of 61 billion dollars (57 billion euros). It will allow it to renew its military equipment and buy the ammunition which it is sorely lacking in the face of the superiority of Russian firepower.
What had been mentioned two days earlier, on the sidelines of the spring meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on April 17 and 18, concerns them just as much: the use of 300 billion dollars from the Central Bank of Russia, frozen from the start of the war, in February 2022. This scenario has gained credibility, and the plan voted on on Capitol Hill authorizes the United States to sell Russian assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. The 61 billion “package” may make a drain on Russian funds less urgent, it does not exclude hitting Moscow in the wallet.
“Make Russia pay!” » Faced with the suffering and needs of Ukrainians, Westerners have made it a political mantra… but they have moved slowly. If the shortage of ammunition can be explained by the insufficiency of their industrial capacities, the lack of money to rearm kyiv was due to an absence of political will. Until the situation changed at the beginning of 2024: faced with the risk of a Ukrainian defeat and the paralysis of the Congress, the Europeans were seized with a feeling of urgency.
Graduated response
The use of Russia’s sovereign assets – the assets of the oligarchs have been excluded – is all the more justified, according to its supporters, as it has relaunched a campaign of mass destruction of infrastructure as crucial as power plants and networks electricity in order to undermine the economy. Despite the valor and ingenuity of the Ukrainians, the gross domestic product (GDP) is 25% lower than it was before the war. The financial response of Westerners is nevertheless gradual, the Europeans being more cautious than the Anglo-Saxons.
The first are the most exposed. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Moscow reportedly transferred much of its cash to Euroclear, believing it would be safer in Brussels than in New York. Thus the Belgian financial company suffered from the perilous management of 200 billion dollars. The Twenty-Seven came out of their wait-and-see attitude at the end of March to agree on the use of interest on invested capital (around $3 billion per year).
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