The provision for transferring about $100 billion in frozen Russian assets to reconstruct Ukraine disappeared from the draft peace agreement after hours of negotiations between representatives of Kiev, the US and the EU in Geneva. Bloomberg reports this, citing sources familiar with the documents.
According to the agency, in the final version of the document there are no longer provisions on the division of profits from the management of blocked Russian assets: the original version assumed that 50% of the income would be received by the United States, and the remaining unused amount would go to a special US-Russian investment fund.
Bloomberg emphasized that in the new condensed version of the plan, cut from 28 to 19 points, US and Ukrainian negotiators focused on the main conditions for a potential ceasefire, adding that European representatives considered the disappearance of the issue of Russian assets a positive signal.
Other major business publications did not address the subject of the Russian assets clause exclusion. Neither Reuters nor the Financial Times mentioned the freeze of Russian funds in their coverage of the Geneva talks. The FT points out that the meeting in Geneva almost collapsed before it began: the first hours, according to the newspaper, passed in an atmosphere of “extreme tension”, and negotiations “hanging by a thread” as the US delegation was exasperated by leaks and public disputes about the initial draft. Only after nearly two hours of negotiations did the parties cool down and move on to meaningful discussions.
The main controversial issues – territorial concessions, the parameters of the Ukrainian army, as well as the relationship between NATO, the United States and Russia – have been placed “in brackets”, that is, postponed for the presidents to decide, FT reported. The newspaper noted that the approval process was difficult: the parties eliminated the most difficult proposals point by point, adjusted the wording and recorded positions that could reach a compromise.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Bloomberg report that the deadline initially set by the Trump administration for November 27 could be postponed.
How many assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation remain frozen?
One of the first and most decisive measures taken by Western countries after the outbreak of military conflict between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022 was to freeze the assets of the Central Bank of Russia. Just a few days later, the EU included in its third sanctions package a ban on all transactions with the Bank of Russia's reserves and assets, effectively blocking some 210 billion euros from falling under the jurisdiction of EU countries. The US, UK, Canada, Japan, Australia and Switzerland also took similar measures.
According to the European Parliament's European Research Service (EPRS) policy brief, “Confiscation of Russia's Frozen Sovereign Assets,” as of February 2024, EU and G7 countries had frozen about 260 billion euros of Russian assets, and if other jurisdictions are included the amount is close to 300 billion euros.
