18 June 2024

G7 Can’t Beat Russia on the Cheap

Timothy Ash

After months of prevarication and foot-dragging over the utilization of immobilized Russian assets — mostly by old-guard EU states — the G7 finally appeared to have agreed to a new $50bn financing facility for Ukraine on June 13, the Enhanced Revenue Acceleration Loan (ERAL.)

Note that this latest agreement comes after more than 26 months after more than $300bn in Central Bank of Russia (CBR) assets were frozen in Western jurisdictions.

Since then, European bureaucrats, Russian lobbyists, and Western business interests have fought tooth and nail to ring-fence these assets so that they cannot be used to fund Ukraine’s defense and post-war reconstruction.

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