The Russian press agency TASS reports that the Russian central bank is launching a lawsuit against the Brussels-based financial market infrastructure group Euroclear. Euroclear is specialised in securities and approximately 185 billion euro in Russian assets have been frozen there since 2022.
Now the Russian central bank intends to recover it’s the frozen assets by launching a lawsuit with an arbitration court in Moscow. It claims that Euroclear is acting unlawfully by freezing the assets. Euroclear has not yet commented on the news from Moscow.
The lawsuit comes amid the discussion by European leader about the use of the frozen Russian funds. The European Commission is reportedly considering ways to use the money directly or indirectly without Russia’s consent. Belgium has expressed caution, halting a proposed recovery loan to Ukraine using the assets due to financial and economic risks.
As we reported last week, Euroclear’s CE O Valerie Urbain says that the European Commission’s proposal “is not realistic” and could “destabilise the international financial system” given Euroclear’s central role.