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Hungary again postpones loan to Ukraine until US elections
Orban has again postponed his decision to use profits from frozen Russian assets to provide loans to Ukraine until after the US elections. Politico wrote that this could help Trump win. Moscow considers measures against "asset theft"
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban once again blocked the use of frozen Russian assets to provide loans to Ukraine at an EU summit in Brussels, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.
The agency notes that in this way the Hungarian prime minister "fulfilled his promise to postpone all decisions until the US elections." A week ago, Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga announced this decision in Budapest. "We believe that the issue of extending sanctions against Russia should be decided after the US elections. "We need to wait and see what direction the next US administration will take on this issue," he said (quoted by Reuters).
The US elections will be held on November 5. Orban supports the Republican candidate, former US President Donald Trump. The latter has criticized Ukraine's funding and said that if he wins, he will be able to resolve the conflict through negotiations with Russian and Ukrainian leaders Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky before his inauguration.
Politico wrote that Orban plans to disrupt the allocation of loans to Ukraine totaling $50 billion to help Trump win the election. If Ukraine does not receive the loan, Trump can promise voters that he will not give Kyiv a penny from the US budget, and if he wins, he will refuse to finance Ukraine.
One of Bloomberg's interlocutors stressed that Hungary's position "doesn't make sense." Because in this case the EU would have to spend more money.
The issue concerns the G7's decision to provide Kyiv with additional funding of up to $50 billion by the end of the year. Most will receive 35 billion euros in loans from the EU, secured by revenues from blocked Russian assets.
The United States, Canada and Japan, which have set up a new aid fund for Ukraine, plan to contribute at least $10 billion. The exact amount to be contributed by the United States, Japan and Canada is still being determined, but it will come from profits from frozen Russian assets, sources told Reuters. The Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) is managed by the World Bank and is not being used for Ukraine's military needs.
The United States and the European Union are expected to contribute $20 billion each to the initiative, with Canada, Britain and Japan contributing the remaining $10 billion. However, the United States has set conditions for the EU to guarantee Russian assets. It will remain frozen within the bloc for at least three years. The bill will now be extended every six months.
Hungary is against this. "We do not support the extension of the sanctions restrictions on the Central Bank of Russia from six months to three years. We do not support this. Because this means that some people in Europe think that there will be a war in the next three years. And this approach is unacceptable to us." This was stated by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian Parliament on October 17 (quoted by RIA Novosti).
The Financial Times writes that before creating a new aid fund for Ukraine, Washington may reject demands for guarantees needed to speed up the disbursement of funds.
Following the start of the military operation in Ukraine, Western countries froze the Russian central bank's assets in the form of cash and securities worth about 260 billion euros, more than two-thirds of which are in Belgium's Euroclear.
Over the past year, Euroclear's depository, where most of its assets are concentrated, earned revenue of 4.4 billion euros, with total profit since the beginning of the year reaching 1.6 billion euros, FT sources say. By 2027, it could reach 20 billion euros.
Russian authorities are demanding that proceeds from assets be turned over to help Ukrainian thieves. The Kremlin has promised legal punishment. In May, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing courts to use American property in Russia to compensate for damages caused by the seizure of American assets.