USA refuses to join G7 plan to use frozen Russian assets
The U.S. side has informed its European colleagues that it does not intend to join the G7 plan to use frozen Russian assets, Bloomberg said, citing sources.
"US officials informed their European counterparts that they won't, for now, be joining the initiative during conversations on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington last week, the people said, asking not to be named as the talks were private," Bloomberg said on Monday.
According to one of the sources, the United States explained its reluctance to participate by risks to market stability. Another source said that at this stage the United States is simply not making any commitments.
The agency also notes that there are different positions on this issue within the G7. In particular, the UK and Canada support the European initiative, but Japan adheres to the same approach as the United States.
Earlier it was reported that the European Commission is considering the possibility of using Russian frozen assets in the amount of about EUR 170 billion, which are currently stored in the Euroclear financial depository in Brussels. It is assumed that EUR 140 billion of these funds will go to a "reparation loan" to Ukraine. This issue is expected to be considered at the EU summit on October 23-24.
