EU quietly plots way to keep Russian billions out of Moscow’s reach

• EU officials are weighing a new supranational structure to hold frozen Russian assets, according to Russia’s SVR intelligence service.
• The move would shift roughly 200 billion euros from Belgium’s Euroclear depository before political shifts after 2027 elections could complicate seizure plans.
• Belgium’s top court ruled the Treasury improperly delegated its authority over asset-release requests, exposing legal gaps in the freeze.
• The EU has already been blocked once by Belgium, which wants stronger guarantees against Russian legal retaliation before signing off.
• Russia has condemned the asset freeze as illegal and vowed that those responsible will face consequences.

Fearing a political shift after upcoming European elections could derail funding for Ukraine, European Union bureaucrats are exploring the creation of a new supranational entity to hold and hide approximately 200 billion euros in frozen Russian sovereign assets, according to a statement from Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). The proposed structure would allow the funds to be moved from Belgium’s Euroclear depository, potentially insulating them from legal challenges and political opposition expected to arise after 2027 elections in several European nations.

Bureaucrats race against political clock to lock down funds

The SVR statement claims EU officials worry they will lose the ability to finance what Moscow describes as Ukraine’s “corrupt regime” unless Russian assets are confiscated before the 2027 electoral cycle. The intelligence service warned that candidates who oppose continuing the war in Europe could take power after those elections, closing what Brussels sees as a “window of opportunity” to seize the money.

“The current ruling elite of the EU should understand that its attempts to steal Russia’s sovereign funds will undermine trust in pan-European institutions,” the SVR cautioned. The EU and G7 nations froze nearly half of Russia’s foreign currency reserves — approximately 300 billion euros — following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with roughly 200 billion euros held in European accounts, primarily at Euroclear.

Belgian court ruling adds legal complications for asset holders

The urgency in Brussels intensified after Belgium’s highest administrative court struck down a government decision to withhold frozen assets from Russia’s BCS Bank. Belgium’s Council of State ruled on September 11 that the Treasury had improperly delegated its authority over asset-release requests to an agency with no legal power to handle them, creating what the court called a legal vacuum.

The decision does not free BCS Bank’s assets outright, but it gives other entities whose requests were rejected on the same grounds a path to challenge those rulings. The court also rejected Belgium’s claim that the bank had forfeited its right to appeal, noting that sanctions cannot be assumed to stay in force forever. Separately, Russia has sued Euroclear over the freeze, and a Moscow court ruled in July that the depository owes Russia’s central bank 18.2 trillion rubles — about 200 billion euros — in damages, though that judgment carries no weight under EU law.

EU legal maneuvers face Belgian resistance and liability concerns

The EU already tried once to unlock the frozen assets for Ukraine, but the plan stalled when Belgium — which hosts most of the money and would bear the legal risk — refused to sign off without stronger guarantees against Russian retaliation. Officials are now looking at alternatives they hope Belgium will find more palatable.

One proposal, backed by former German defense minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and French EU lawmaker Nathalie Loiseau, would shift Russian holdings at Euroclear into a separate EU-run vehicle, transferring the legal liabilities along with the assets themselves and shielding Belgium and Euroclear from the fallout.

Sweden has pushed to revive the debate as EU governments hash out the bloc’s 2028-2034 budget, framing the frozen assets as a way to help Ukraine without further tapping national treasuries. Ukraine claims it faces a $27 billion shortfall this year with an even larger gap expected next year. However, a Belgian official stated the government’s position “has not changed,” insisting any proposal must provide a “complete and legally watertight solution covering both the assets and the liabilities of Euroclear and of the Belgian State.”

Moscow has repeatedly condemned the asset freeze as illegal, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova calling the practice “a direct crime” that will be punished, and suggesting that European officials who acknowledge its illegality are acting out of self-preservation rather than principle.

Brussels has spent more than four years insisting the frozen reserves are merely “immobilized,” not seized — a distinction that grows harder to sustain the longer officials search for ways to move the money beyond Moscow’s legal reach. If the EU’s own courts are already finding cracks in the bloc’s legal justifications for freezing Russian-linked funds, bureaucrats racing to lock in a seizure scheme before voters can weigh in are inviting exactly the kind of institutional distrust the SVR warned about.

Sources for this article include:

SputnikGlobe.com

SputnikGlobe.com

RT.com

FT.com