Russian President Vladimir Putin and his cabinet slated Europe on Wednesday – the eve of a key summit in Brussels, where European leaders are set to decide on the use of Russian assets frozen in Europe to fund Ukraine’s war effort.
The reparations loan, so named because Ukraine would only repay it after receiving financial compensation from Russia after the war, has been in the works since late summer. The loan, which is worth at least €90 billion ($106 billion), would stave off Ukraine’s growing budget deficit and buy it time to keep fighting Russia’s war of attrition.
Speaking at an annual Russian defense ministry meeting, Putin blamed former US President Joe Biden for “consciously” starting Russia’s war in Ukraine and the “European little pigs” for siding with him, as per Politico.
Despite Russia’s involvement in renewed US efforts to broker a peace in Ukraine, Putin said that the aims of Russia’s “special military operation” (the Kremlin term for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine) would be met “unconditionally.”
At the same meeting, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov claimed that NATO is preparing to attack Russia by 2030, as per Russian state media.
“We are not the ones making threats; we are the ones being threatened,” he said.
Also on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Europe and the US – “the collective West” – of trying to “distort every international law norm, to replace them with its own rules that do not fit into the generally accepted guidelines of international law.”
Russia has previously threatened Europe with dire consequences should the proposed reparations loan succeed – for example, by seizing the far smaller number of European assets held in Russia.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever, one of the loan’s most vocal opponents, said on Dec. 3 that he had been threatened directly.
“Moscow has informed us that if seizures happen, Belgium and I personally would ‘feel it for eternity.’ That seems like quite a long time,” he told Belgian magazine La Libre.
Russia’s central bank has also launched legal proceedings against Euroclear, the Belgian bank where the majority of the assets are held.
For the loan’s supporters in Europe, the stakes are equally high. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that its failure could “severely” damage the EU’s credibility.
“If we do not succeed in this, then the European Union’s ability to act will be severely damaged for years, if not longer, and we will show the world that we are incapable of standing together and acting at such a crucial moment in our history,” Merz said.
For Ukraine, the stakes are higher still.