Russia won't lose - Belgium's PM makes controversial statement on Russian assets
Photo: Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Belgium believes that Russia will not lose the war in Ukraine, and that claims about its defeat are "a fairy tale and a complete illusion." Therefore, frozen assets will have to be returned to Russia after the war. Russia has openly threatened Belgium with "eternal retaliation" if it confiscates the assets, said Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever in an interview with La Libre.
De Wever spoke about "incredible pressure" surrounding the issue of seizing Russia's frozen assets. At the same time, the Belgian Prime Minister insists on calling attempts to transfer Russia's funds to Ukraine a theft.
"Stealing frozen assets of another country, its sovereign wealth funds, has never been done before. This is the money of the Central Bank of Russia. Even during World War II, Germany's money wasn't confiscated, it was frozen," he said.
De Wever added that after a war ends, the country that lost must give up all or part of its assets. However, the Belgian Prime Minister appears to believe that Russia is winning the war. Moreover, he claims that a Russian defeat would be undesirable.
"But who really believes that Russia will lose in Ukraine? Russia will not lose. This is a fairy tale, a complete illusion. It is even undesirable for them to lose, so that instability doesn't grip a country that possesses nuclear weapons," he said.
According to De Wever, the Kremlin has directly threatened Brussels, promising "eternal retaliation" if Belgium allows the European Union to confiscate Russian assets.
"Who believes that Putin would calmly accept the confiscation of Russian assets? Moscow made it clear that if confiscation happens, Belgium and I personally will feel the consequences forever. That seems like a rather long time," he said.
Belgium's position
Belgium continues to invent new excuses to obstruct the confiscation of Russian assets. Recently, De Wever claimed that the EU's proposal to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine could lead to serious economic and geopolitical consequences.
In response, European countries directly accused Belgium of making excessive demands to protect the frozen Russian assets in case the Kremlin files a lawsuit to recover €140 billion.
Politico recently published an article explaining why Belgium opposes the confiscation of Russia's assets. According to the outlet, Belgium's resistance may have more practical reasons than fear of retaliation from Russia. EU officials suspect Belgium is pocketing the income generated by Russia's assets instead of transferring it to Ukraine.
