{"id":660,"date":"2026-02-09T11:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/660\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T11:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:16:11","slug":"eu-can-gain-by-moving-russias-frozen-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/660\/","title":{"rendered":"EU can gain by moving Russia\u2019s frozen funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"European<\/p>\n

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters, on the day of a European Union leaders’ summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 18, 2025. REUTERS\/Stephanie Lecocq\/File Photo<\/p>\n

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) – The bloc balked at using $250 bln of central bank assets to help Ukraine after Moscow threatened Belgium, where most of the cash is parked. But if the EU shifts the account to a new custodian, it will be less susceptible to bullying. That will open lots of strategic options.<\/p>\n

Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Editing by Peter Thal Larsen; Production by Maya Nandhini<\/p>\n

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Hugo<\/a><\/p>\n

Hugo Dixon is Commentator-at-Large for Reuters. He was the founding chair and editor-in-chief of Breakingviews. Before he set up Breakingviews, he was editor of the Financial Times\u2019 Lex Column. After Thomson Reuters acquired Breakingviews, Hugo founded InFacts, a journalistic enterprise making the fact-based case against Brexit. He was also one of the founders of the People\u2019s Vote which campaigned for a new referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU. He was one of the initiators of the G7\u2019s \u201cpartnership for global growth and infrastructure\u201d, a $600 billion plan to help the Global South accelerate its transition to net zero. He is now advocating a $300 billion \u201creparation loan\u201d for Ukraine, under which Moscow\u2019s assets would be lent to Kyiv and Russia would only get them back if it paid war damages. He is also a philosopher, with a research focus on meaningful lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters, on the day of a European Union leaders’ summit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[719,740,737,720,721,18,715,742,722,732,738,716,736,739,733,723,724,725,741,753,754,744,750,749,751,747,748,743,746,752,745,735,726,717,734,727,718,728,729,730,731],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-anlins","tag-asia","tag-asxpac","tag-bact","tag-biz","tag-brussels","tag-brv","tag-brvf","tag-brvtbv","tag-ceeu","tag-cisc","tag-clm","tag-emea","tag-emrg","tag-europ","tag-fin","tag-fins","tag-fund","tag-mtgfx","tag-n2asia","tag-n2asxpac","tag-n2bact","tag-n2ceeu","tag-n2cisc","tag-n2emea","tag-n2emrg","tag-n2europ","tag-n2fins","tag-n2fund","tag-n2nasia","tag-n2ru","tag-nasia","tag-news1","tag-rep","tag-ru","tag-topcmb","tag-topnws","tag-xdnp","tag-xpco","tag-xpmf","tag-xrnp"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}