Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22, Thursday morning: “We are not at war with Russia. Europe is not at war with Russia. You can’t just confiscate money. This is an act of war,” Izvestia reported. “Don’t underestimate this. This has never happened: Immobilized money has never been confiscated, even during World War II.” He warned that the seizure of assets would have “serious consequences for Europe, for the credibility of the Eurozone financial system.”
“There is no free money. Everything that seems simple is actually very difficult…. If assets are confiscated and spent, then at some point they will have to be reimbursed, and then a big problem will arise,” De Wever went on, again publicly contradicting EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who just last week insisted, in a speech at the European Parliament, that the full seizure option remained on the table, and that the EU preserves the right to seize Russian property to repay the €90 billion loan, decided as a plan B for the time being on Dec. 18, 2025.
