On the sidelines of the meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg on Oct. 10, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said he was “certain that we will ultimately get Putin to pay for his war,” and it would be done in a “legally secure” way by Europe. This is also the idea endorsed by the E3—the leaders of France, Germany and U.K. who met on Oct. 10.
This would involve depositing a portion of the frozen Russian assets—worth €140 billion—as collateral for borrowing on the financial markets. The funds raised would then be transferred to Ukraine as so-called “reparation loans.” Russia would only get its assets back if it made reparations payments to Ukraine after the end of the war.
