According to the first of two installments on “weaponization of finance” published by the Financial Times, two figures were key in Europe to force through the decision to freeze Russian central bank reserves on the third day of the military intervention in Ukraine: Mario Draghi and von der Leyen’s chief of staff, Björn Seibert.
“Von der Leyen called Mario Draghi, Italian Prime Minister, and asked him to thrash the details out directly with Yellen. ‘We were all waiting around, asking, ‘What’s taking so long?’ recalls an EU official. ‘Then the answer came: Draghi has to work his magic on Yellen.’ By the evening, agreement had been reached,” the FT wrote.
… “In Washington, the sanctions plans were led by Daleep Singh, a former New York Fed official who is now Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics at the White House, and Wally Adeyemo, a former BlackRock executive serving as Deputy Treasury Secretary.
