The Duran Podcast - EU crosses RUBICON, permanent Russian asset FREEZE

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

EU crosses RUBICON, permanent Russian asset FREEZE

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the situation with the Russian frozen assets. We have this plan now to bypass Hungary, at least with the freezing of the Russian assets, basically to make the freezing of the Russian assets permanent. And if they want to be unfrozen, then it's going to need a unanimous vote. So this is the latest scheme that they've cooked up or they are cooking up. And you also have the meeting that is going to take place in Brussels where top of the agenda will be to basically threaten Belgium. Tell Belgium, if you do not green light the Russian frozen assets to the Zelensky regime, then you're going to be treated like Hungary. We're going to freeze you out of any more money, any more funds, the normal treatment that EU member states.

apparently received from Brussels, which is the access to the various funds that they put together and to all of the swanky parties and get-togethers. De Weaver is going to get to the Orban treatment if he does not give over the Russia of frozen assets. By the way, the Prime Minister of Belgium, he is now on record. Well, he's on record multiple times, but he is on record again saying that this is a very, very bad idea. He even said it's pretty much theft. So this is a slam duck case, slam dunk case for the Russians if the EU proceeds, but they're going to proceed. Maybe not with the Russian frozen assets, but they are going to get $2,025 billion to Zelensky,

one way or another. And of course, Europe and EU member states will be on the hook one way or not. another. That's my thoughts. There is no doubt about this. And there is a third aspect of this story, which one should mention too, I think, which is that the European Commission has produced a document in which it apportions liability in case things go wrong to various member states. So it says that Germany, if things go wrong and money must be given to cover any loss resulting from a court case, Germany is on the hook for 53 billion euros. Hungary, which is of course opposed to all of this, is on the hook for two billion euros. And again, as I understand it, the intention

is to ram this through as well. So it's not something that the member states have agreed to. I mean, Hungary is never going to agree to anything like this. But my sense is that we're moving now to a position when we're going to have emergency powers. They're now invoking the emergency powers. We discussed this in our previous video. But they are now moving steadily towards imposing liabilities

for this plan on member states against their will, which, as I've said already, gives this whole thing, something of the character of a forced loan, which is something that does happen in wartime, but bear in mind, you know, the European Union is not a state at wars, a nation at war. So, forced loans are not supposed to happen in peace time. and historically they've only been imposed in war time. And as I said, they're not even at war. And where forced loans begin,

where you start getting into this kind of situation where we're starting to raise forced loans with member states. Well, as I've discussed in programs, taxation inevitably follows. I mean, direct taxation by the EU of its member states, the setting up of the tax, inspectorate and enforcement operation. Of course, there will be heated denials that this is the plan.

But I cannot myself see how you can take liabilities, take on liabilities of this kind, without securing income. Just saying. So the whole thing is becoming, it is becoming, in my opinion,

ever more sinister and also ever more deranged. Now, the Euroclear has said, don't do this. This is wrong. The European Central Bank has said, don't do this, this is wrong. The International Monetary Fund has said, don't do this, this is wrong. The United States is now also saying, don't do this, this is wrong. Besides, it will throw into confusion.

It will derail our own peace effort. We're making serious efforts to get the Russia. to agree to our peace efforts. We need to be able to at least repay some of these frozen assets to the Russians. If you stop doing this to the Russian assets, the Russians might take that badly and could very well and probably will walk away. Japan is saying we're not having anything to do with this. We're not going to appropriate any of our frozen assets, any Russian frozen assets on our territory. So we're not going along with this. This is obviously illegal and it is clearly wrong. And so Japan, which bear in mind is the world's second biggest creditor state

after China is also making clear that this is wrong. And yet the European Commission is ignoring all of this. They're ignoring Euroclear, the IMF, the European Central Bank, the United States, Japan, they're just steaming ahead remorselessly. They're invoking emergency powers. They're denying Hungary of its veto rights on sanctions. And bear in mind, Hungary, when it originally agreed to the sanctions, it agreed to them on the basis that it has the veto power to have the sanctions lifted because the sanctions are rolled over every six months. So the EU is using emergency powers to deny Hungary of a right to lift the sanctions, which Hungary assumed that it had when it agreed to the sanctions in the first place.

Again, it's incredibly sinister. It is, again, almost certainly against EU law. I mean, you are rewriting law even as you're operating it. Anybody, any lawyer will tell you that you simply cannot do that. You cannot change the terms of a law in that kind of way. You cannot deprive a country of its rights under a law, an EU law, when you do that. But that is what they're now seeking to do. And as you absolutely rightly say, they're now coming after Belgium, one of the original founding members of the EU, a country which has always been in exceptionally good standing with the EU.

And the country which hosts all the EU's institutions, all the key institutions, I mean, the European Commission is there, the European Parliament is there, other institutions are in other institutions. are in other places, but again, it is astonishing that all of this is going on and that they're now coming after Belgium as well. And you're absolutely right. When the moment comes and the Russians have said, we're not going to take this line down, we are absolutely going to bring legal proceedings, we have the right to bring legal proceedings. We are not going to bring them in a European Union, a court in the European Union. We have a commercial treaty with Belgium and Luxembourg, which creates a vehicle for us to set up a tribunal to adjudicate disputes of this kind,

when they arise. And the decisions of that tribunal are binding and not subject to appeal. And they're binding under the local. laws of Belgium. And the EU is now proposing to use, again, emergency powers to basically say that decisions of that court are not binding on European Union territory. They are in effect annulling an international commercial treaty. They are seeking to set aside international law. I mean, it doesn't get worse than this. And bear in mind that the European Union itself as an entity, as a structure, is a pure creation of law. It is not a nation state. It is created

by treaties, which various countries, Belgium, Hungary, have all agreed to and have signed and have ratified through their parliaments. And the European institutions, Ursula, and the commission are now tearing all that up. I mean, it just is incredible that this is happening. It is something that once, not so long ago, would have been thought unthinkable, but it's going to happen. Incredible, but also not incredible when you look at the leadership of Europe. I mean, Ursula and Cayacallis and Costa. I mean, it should be no surprise that this is happening.

And they're absolutely obsessed with bringing Russia down, taking Russia down. The plan is you detach the Russian assets from the sanctions roll over vote. And therefore, by detaching, by making it permanent, when the sanctions come up for a vote every six months, the sanctions are taken out of that vote. and they're now permanently froze. That's the plan. They're going to permanently freeze them. So yes, you're going to have votes to roll over the sanctions packages. Every six months, these votes take place.

You used to have the Russian assets part of that vote, but now that's not going to be considered anymore. So you're looking at a permanent freeze. Yes. Forever, the Russian assets, permanently frozen. Yes. And any member state, Estonia, can vote to keep, if it ever comes up and there's a vote to lift those sanctions, a country like Estonia can vote against it and can keep the assets locked. To exactly what's going to happen?

Frozen indefinitely. Now, bear in mind, as I said, Hungary might not have voted to freeze the assets if it had been told at the time that this might happen. Hungary got fooled. Well, I got fooled. Yeah, because they voted. No, I remember. I remember covering this story. You're right.

Hungary was under the impression. Well, the process was every six months, we're going to vote to roll over the sanctions, and in the sanctions is a vote for the Russian frozen assets. Yes. To unfreeze the Russian frozen assets every six months. Yes. Yes. So Hungary went along with it.

and Slovakia went along with it, under the impression that every six months this would be voted on. Exactly. And other countries, by the way, that are also financial centres, the smaller financial centers. Malta, for example, had great doubts about this. I remember because Malta is also a financial center. And they might have resisted this whole thing back in February 2022 if somebody had told them that, if you're voting for it, you're not going to be able to lift it because it's going to become permanent.

By the way, if you're making something permanent, you're not freezing it any longer. You're confiscating it. You're confiscating it. This is another thing that people do need to understand. If you are depriving somebody permanently of their asset, then you have taken it. You're not freezing it. I mean, talking about the other person possessing ownership, this is an absolute straightforward denial of ownership rights.

If you have ownership, then at some point you are entitled to expect that your asset will be given back to you. Now, of course, what they say is that they will give it back if the Russians pay some kind of pay reparations to Ukraine. But, I mean, that again, is, well, first of all, that's never going to happen. But beyond that, that is, again, it has no legal foundation. You don't say, if you don't say, look, I'm going to take your car and I'm going to give it back to you, provided you pay me money. I mean, it doesn't make the theft better.

It makes it worse, actually. It's not even that. If you go by the plans that they've put out there in the past, the EU with the reparations for Ukraine that Russia has to pay, they're saying the reparations are going to be anywhere between half a billion to a trillion dollars. Yeah. So they're saying,

okay, Russia, at a minimum, you're going to pay Ukraine, or pay us, pay Ukraine, pay us half a trillion dollars, and then we'll give you the 140 billion dollars. Exactly. But you have to pay us the half a trillion dollars first. Yes, yes. It compounds, as I said, the illegality. Again, people don't understand this. As I said, you know, you see somebody's car, which is worth, say, 5,000 euros, and you'll

say, I'll give it back if you gave me 50,000 euros. I mean, it's insane. It's, it's, it's, it's, I mean, it's, it's, it's nuts. I mean, it's not nuts. It is so brazenly legal that you know, I mean, every single one of these devices makes the illegality of this even more obvious. When I listen to all of this, to the whole situation when I read about it, when I listen to it, listen to you, explain it.

The only thing that comes to my mind, as I listen to all of this, is that this is all about moving towards a war with Russia. Because the only way you settle these types of issues is through conflict. When one side says, you know, I'm taking your money and I'm never giving it back. I don't care. I don't care. I'm not going to give it back. Yes.

How do you resolve this? Even if you go to court. Yes. And even if the court rules, which the court will rule, you have to give that money back. The EU is basically saying, we don't recognize the legality of this. We don't recognize the jurisdiction of this court. We don't recognize it. We don't recognize it, period.

That's what they're saying. Yes. So what do you do if you're Russia? Well, first of all, you're going to start taking reciprocal steps. You're going to start seizing assets, seizing assets, which are located on your own territory. Secondly, if you set up this tribunal through this court, through this treaty, you might be able to persuade, in fact, you probably would be able to persuade some countries around the world to accept the judgments of this court, and you might

be able to start seizing assets outside the territory of the European Union. I know Belgium is worried about that. And Belgium, by the way, is a country, which is many assets in many places, because it was itself a former colonial power, just saying so. They're spread out all around the world and it's going to be very, very widely about that. And as I understand, that can happen at any time. I mean, the Russians can do it in 20 years if they choose. But this is the thing. What the Russians do in this situation is probably less important than what will happen because it is impossible to see how doing all of these things can do anything other than destroy your financial credibility. If you are the Saudis, say, and the Saudis, by the way, made clear that they oppose this as well.

If you are banking creditors, whoever, you now know that if the European, Union is determined to press forward with an operation of this kind. There is absolutely no law, none, that they're not prepared to break in order to do it. Bear in mind, I mean, they recently, in the Netherlands, the Dutch government recently seized a Chinese-owned business, which is an expedia. And this has now apparently caused a lot of trouble, and there's been a debate about it in the Dutch parliament. And the Dutch government was unable really, I thought, to provide any convincing legal justification for this.

So we see the pattern that is developing. Well, they did it on the U.S. orders. They did it on the U.S. orders in 24 hours. They seized Nixperia on the U.S. orders. Absolutely. Absolutely. But, I mean, people are going to say increasingly, it's dangerous. to put your money or to invest money on the territory of the European Union.

Because if it happens, if they decide that they want to take it, they just will. Now, within the European Union, they've of course already done that. You are from Cyprus. You will remember how they set about they wanted to take money out of Cypriot bank account. And they took it. Exactly. They took money out of secret bank accounts. But you could say, well, that's the money of the EU citizens, what they do to people within

the EU, probably governments, people, business people, rich people, high net worth individuals in the Gulf states, in Singapore, wherever, probably aren't too bothered about that. But now you're telling them, look, this might happen to your money. Putting your funds on the, if your estate, putting your funds on deposit in Euroclear, the EU has shown that it can take it. Putting, opening a business in the Netherlands or in Germany, European governments or the EU can seize it. So this is going to have a steady, sagging effect. And this is the extraordinary thing about this.

I have been told privately by a source. You know the identity of the source, I believe, that in Moscow there are discussions. And they're saying, look, the reality is we are never going to get this money back anyway. And we don't even need it. It actually works to our advantage long term for the EU to do this. Let them do it. It will shoot to pieces, their credibility, and it will help us further build up the bricks and build up the payment systems and the depositories in the bricks, which we the Russians

have played the biggest role in designing. And Putin's trip to India, it turned out, was not about defense and all of the best. those things. It was about trade and mutual trade and all kinds of things of that kind. But first and foremost, it was about getting the Indians to fully commit to the new structures, the use, the new systems, the depositories, the payment systems and all of these things that are being designed for the bricks. So this is going to accelerate the bricks. Just as the original freezing of the Russian assets in 2022 accelerated the development of Bricks, this is going to give, this is going to turbocharge it.

Yeah. No, Cyprus was the test ground. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Cyprus did nothing. Zero pushback. Yes. They accepted it.

Yes. And Ursula, before the two weeks into the conflict in Ukraine, Ursula unilaterally mandated that all Russian media is banned in Europe. Yeah. She unilaterally mandated that European nations close their airspace to Russian commercial flights. Yes. The Europeans accepted it.

All EU member states accepted it. Zero pushback. 20 sanctions packages, 19 sanctions packages going on 20. Zero pushback. Hungary, a little bit pushback. Slovakia, a little bit pushback. But they always vote for it. That's the bottom line.

They always vote for it. And so what are you going to get next? COVID, the Koof. Same exact thing. Zero pushback. Every country went along with it. Ursula and her text messages. Absolutely corruption scandal.

Yeah. Okay. Now there's some EU parliament members pretending that they're going to investigate it and there's a big whatever. Bullocks. It's all a bunch of bullocks, a load of bullocks, whatever we say, right? They allow this to happen. And where are they taking us to?

they're taking us to taxation. So now as EU member states from my understanding of things, just to wrap up the video, what we're looking at is a situation where we're going to be taxed by our country, and then we're going to also be taxed by the EU. And the tax is going to start small, just like the VAT taxes. I remember the VAT? Oh, 1%, 2%. Now it's at 19% and 20%.

Eventually, that's what we're looking at. and EU tax on everybody. And you know what? All the member states are going to go along with it. Yes, of course. And Eurobonds and all of that. And further industrial decline, further economic stagnation, further and ever more belligerent and aggressive policies

and more crackdowns on dissent and all of this. I mean, I said this already. The best part of the US national, the strategic security document was its description of what is happening in Europe. This is provoked enormous criticism in Europe. The reason is provoked criticism is because every word of it is true. Yeah. The taxation part is worrying.

I mean, I hope we don't go there. I hope we don't get there. Because I don't know how much people can take. How much more inflation and taxation can the average person take at this point? Well, indeed, yes, absolutely. But I mean, that is indeed where we're... Well, when they turn on Belgium, which is one of their own, which is what they're now doing, when they turn on Belgium, then you know what the end point of this is going to be.

There is no point where left to the... themselves, they will stop. And of course, when they're burning up the treaties, which are the basis of what created them, then you are dealing with a completely lawless institution. That accepts no constraints on its actions and no constraints on its behavior, and provided it finds enough allies within the European states, which it will, because the important thing to understand about European governments, about Macron, Mertz, all of these people, is that ultimately they are apparatchiki, they are officials of this centre. We saw what happened in Romania when it looked as if Romania was going to vote against these proposals, how an election

was cancelled, how the candidate who looked like he was going to win was prevented from winning and prevented even from standing. I believe he's now facing, by the way, criminal investigation. So you can see where it's going. You can see where this is heading. And it's obviously they will at some point get their taxation. But in the process, they're taking the whole of Europe over the cliff. And let's not forget that Orban is saying they have a 2030 plan for war with Russia. Yeah. And you're absolutely right about that too. Because I remember about a year ago when the first tremors of discussion appeared. about, you know, seizing, confiscating the Russian assets. An article appeared by a jurist in the Financial Times, in which he said, under no circumstances do this thing. This is something that can only be done if you are in a state of war, and if you do it,

you are blurring the distinction between war and peace. Well, they are heading towards war. because this is not an act of peace. And I have to make one more comment or question. They would not do any of this without approval from the United States. Well, certainly their friends. Some parts of the US government. Well, the parts of the US government.

The parts that really matter. I mean, we've discussed this already. There are people in the US that are talking all the time to the people in Europe. there are constant communications taking place between them. And the fact that Trump is saying, don't do this thing, because if you do this, quite apart from all the other issues, it will wreck my peace drive. It will wreck my attempt to put together this peace plan with the Russians. That incentivizes those people who do not want that plan to be put forward and who do not

want a settlement, a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. It incentivizes them to have the assets seized, precisely because Trump himself is telling them that if that happens, the plan can't go ahead. Well, just to put some stuff into context, you're right about that. You know, there's parts of the U.S. government, the Trump administration, which is saying, don't do this. But on the other side, you have people like Bessent, the Treasury Secretary. Well, absolutely. On record saying take those assets. Absolutely.

And Bessant isn't the only person. I mean, the entire Treasury Department probably is pushing for this, just as they're pushing for sanctions against Russia all the time. There is a whole division, a whole department in the Treasury that is there to create and enforce sanctions. That is what these people do. That is what they get paid to do. They get paid big money to do it.

And when they leave the Treasury, they're looking forward to getting positions in all sorts of places, which are probably going to be even bigger money. So they have a compulsion to sanction. We've discussed the escalatory escalator. You start going down the sanctions route. You can never get off. And the pressure for them to do that is the pressure from them, for it is always there.

The part that worries me is how you do eventually get off. You either eventually get off because everything just crumbles. Yes. Or you eventually get off because there's some sort of force that pushes you off. Yes. And that's where we're heading. I mean, no one voluntarily, no one gets realistic and rational and says, Stop. No one. And we don't see anybody in Europe.

Well, if anybody came forward and argued for it and seemed to be gaining traction, we could see that there would be steps taken to prevent them being elected. Already, to repeat again, the SBD in Germany is actively campaigning now. It seems to be their major priority. They are actively campaigning for a ban of the IFD. So there you are. All right, we'll end the video there. The durand. Dotlocals.com. We're on X. We're on Telegram. We are on Rumble.

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