FT reported Scholz's outrage over Duda's idea to confiscate Russia's assets

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was outraged by Polish President Andrzej Duda's call to confiscate and spend Russian assets that had been frozen. This was reported by the Financial Times on December 20.

It is noted that during a meeting of European Union leaders on Wednesday, December 18, the Polish leader made a proposal to confiscate and spend Russian assets worth more than €260 billion.

"You don't realize how this would affect the stability of our financial markets," Scholz said during his conversation with Duda.

Apart from the German chancellor, France and Italy also disagreed with the Polish president's proposal. The initiative was supported by the U.S. and Britain.

Earlier in the day, European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis called on the European Union (EU) to study the confiscation of Russian assets in the West.

On December 17, Bloomberg quoted informed sources as saying that the European Union (EU) was assessing the legal and financial consequences of confiscating the assets of the Russian Central Bank (CB) to help Ukraine. It is noted that a number of states, including Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, are concerned about the idea of confiscation.

Prior to that, on December 11, the new head of diplomacy of the European Union (EU), Kaja Kallas, said that she doubted the balance of Russian assets that had been frozen by the West.

In September this year, during a meeting of the European Parliament, Valdis Dombrovskis said that €1.4 billion of frozen Russian assets had already been used to buy weapons for Ukraine. Most of the supplies to Kiev should be realized by the end of the year.

According to the latest data, since February 2022, the G7 countries (G7), the EU and Australia have frozen €260 billion of Central Bank assets. Back in February, Liv Mostri, head of Euroclear's international platform in Belgium, noted that the transfer of proceeds from Russia's assets as aid to Ukraine was very close to indirect confiscation, which could have exactly the same impact on markets as a direct seizure.

Western countries have tightened sanctions pressure on Russia in connection with the special operation to protect Donbass. The decision to launch it was announced on February 24, 2022, after the aggravation of the situation in the region. Soon the EU approved the decision to freeze the assets of the Russian Central Bank.