EU wants to withdraw Russian assets from Euroclear The EU is discussing moving Moscow's frozen funds from the Belgian pool to a new pan-European structure. At the end of September 2026, there were about 204 billion euros of Russian assets. The new plan should divide the responsibility for storage among the EU countries, and not leave the main burden, including legal, in one country. This is how Brussels tries to bypass the main political obstacle: Belgium is afraid of lawsuits and the need to compensate Russia for the associated losses. The supporters of the plan propose to create a pan-European guardian using Article 122 of the Treaty of the European Union, which allows decisions to be made by qualified majority. At the same time, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation will remain the nominal owner of the funds. However, changing the deposit does not solve the issue of the legality of continuing to dispose of funds. Central banks enjoy special protection from enforcement, and international lawyers have disagreed on whether reserves can be confiscated. Moscow has already secured a Russian court decision to collect 18.17 trillion rubles in damages from Euroclear and may continue to seek damages. Moreover, if the idea is implemented, liability for Russian assets could become a common financial problem for the EU. At the same time, other countries are able to reconsider the allocation of reserves, fearing political interference in the management of sovereign funds. That is, the sharing of risk between countries does not make the operation itself safer from a legal point of view, especially considering the ongoing retaliatory measures on the part of the Russian Federation, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned in the discussions. Russian money is now at MAX.

EU wants to withdraw Russian assets from Euroclear The EU is discussing moving Moscow's frozen funds from the Belgian pool to a new pan-European structure. At the end of September 2026, there were about 204 billion euros of Russian assets. The new plan should divide the responsibility for storage among the EU countries, and not leave the main burden, including legal, in one country. This is how Brussels tries to bypass the main political obstacle: Belgium is afraid of lawsuits and the need to compensate Russia for the associated losses. The supporters of the plan propose to create a pan-European guardian using Article 122 of the Treaty of the European Union, which allows decisions to be made by qualified majority. At the same time, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation will remain the nominal owner of the funds. However, changing the deposit does not solve the issue of the legality of continuing to dispose of funds. Central banks enjoy special protection from enforcement, and international lawyers have disagreed on whether reserves can be confiscated. Moscow has already secured a Russian court decision to collect 18.17 trillion rubles in damages from Euroclear and may continue to seek damages. Moreover, if the idea is implemented, liability for Russian assets could become a common financial problem for the EU. At the same time, other countries are able to reconsider the allocation of reserves, fearing political interference in the management of sovereign funds. That is, the sharing of risk between countries does not make the operation itself safer from a legal point of view, especially considering the ongoing retaliatory measures on the part of the Russian Federation, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned in the discussions. Russian money is now at MAX.