The Duran Podcast - EUROCLEAR warns Ursula on seizing Russian Assets

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

EUROCLEAR warns Ursula on seizing Russian Assets

All right, Alexander, let's revisit the topic of Russian frozen assets. And Ursula von der Leyen, she sent a letter to all of the heads of states of EU countries. And she basically gave them three options. Option number one is for them to pay Ukraine. So they can keep the Ukraine government afloat over the next two years. So either they reach in their pockets. That's one option. Reach into your pocket and give money.

to Ukraine, straight up. Option number two is some sort of collective debt, a collective loan together as EU member states. They go in on a loan, they guarantee it, and then that money goes to Ukraine. And option number three is taking the Russian frozen asses, which is the option that Ursula prefers. Yes. So those are the three options she presented in a letter, a written letter, to EU member states. Orban has gone public with all of this, so we know about it. And she doesn't mention option number four, which is what Orban talks about, which is for EU member states to say no to all three of the options, right? Why should I give money to Ukraine? Why should I go into debt and guarantee a loan? And why should I be on the hook for stealing Russia's frozen assets? I mean, that's another option that obviously

Ursula doesn't want to talk about. But all of this is about keeping Ukraine afloat for what she believes is going to be enough money for the next two years. We're talking about $130 to $150 billion. So your thoughts on this. It really actually is becoming very obsessional. Now, what's Osir is saying is that unless Ukraine is given this money, 140 billion euros, soon before February, Ukraine is going to go bust. that it's running out of money fast. It cannot cover the budget.

There's a $60 billion hole in the Ukrainian budget. Ukraine is collecting less than half in taxes of what it spends. So in order to keep Ukraine going, the Europeans have to come up with all of this money. and the two options, the other two options, the debt, you know, giving direct funds to Ukraine or debt utilization, that these are unattractive. So let's go and steal the Russian assets. Let's go ahead with this complicated plan to steal the assets. As you absolutely rightly said, she does not even consider, she doesn't allow herself. all the European states that she is writing to to consider the fourth option, which is that they

call it a day, tell the Ukrainians, we've reached the end point, we can't give you any more, and let events take their course. That is not something that she's prepared to do. You've often spoken about the sunk cost fallacy. You have it here in its most extreme, I would say even fanatical form. We are so deep in now that we can't stop giving, since we can't really be expected to give from our own budgets. We've got to take the Russian assets instead. Well, there it is. That's Usula. Now, she's come up, however, against a major obstacle, and it's now becoming increasingly clear where the strongest opposition to this is coming from, and that is from Euroclear itself. Euroclear CEO has been making a whole series of statements.

She has made it fairly obvious that this scheme that Ursula and, um, maths have come up with is illegal, that this idea of floating alone and using the Russian assets as collateral is basically a way of stealing the assets. So she said this is absolutely, you know, she's making clear that she thinks that this is illegal. And she is saying, this is a woman called Valé-Belain, that if we go ahead with this, it will destroy Euroclear, it will destroy its reputation and it will undermine the entire basis of the European financial system

and of course it will precipitate a massive crisis for Belgium now bear in mind that apparently the total amount of assets on deposit with Euroclear is somewhere in the region

of 43 trillion euros. If all of that starts to melt down, then of course we can imagine, and that's what this person is basically warning us about. One can imagine the kind of crisis in the European financial system that might come. So that is what she is saying, Valeri Urban is saying. She's warning the Belgian government of it because of course the Belgian government would be the first one to be hooked. There is no conceivable way that the Belgian government can cover a collapse of that kind. And the Belgians are saying no, and they've been asking for debt neutralisation, or rather liability neutralisation, sorry, about Euroclear. But given the

enormous funds involved in Euroclear, you can see why other European governments are not prepared to go there either. And nonetheless, and in spite of that, Ursula simply won't let go. Why? Why will she not let this go, given that this could cause a financial meltdown in the European Union? Has the ECB said anything about this? It seems... The ECB also opposes this idea. Okay. And you know, we're talking about... How come the ECB doesn't go stop this? Well, indeed, absolutely. It doesn't say stop, it's over.

Yes. Well, I mean, I suppose they're all frightened that, you know, European governments are going to swing around and do this. And, of course, Malthz appears to be, well, he doesn't appear. He is backing Ursula on this one. Some governments, France, Italy are also making their opposition now. But why Osula won't let go? it is because she's obsessive and she's become fanatical. And for her project Ukraine is all important.

And if project Ukraine collapses, well, as far as she's concerned, that is an even greater disaster, presumably, than a financial crisis that sinks the entire European economy. We are no longer talking about somebody making rational calculations and taking rational risks. It's become obviously an obsession. And an obsession, which I'm afraid, I get the sense that the entire European Commission shares

and which other people across Europe share to. Is Ursula getting these orders to continue to push forward with getting the Russian assets? This is coming from the United States, perhaps? I mean, would the United States take a position and say, you know what? But if there's a meltdown in Europe, an investment meltdown, well, then the money's going to come to the U.S. And there might be some element of that.

My understanding is that the Americans are distancing themselves from this idea. Apparently, they've been cool to making this a G7 plan. They wanted to be a European plan. But then, of course, you could argue that that's fine for them. I mean, they can tell the Europeans to go ahead and do it. But if it's not a G7 clan, that they're not hooked for it. True. So, you know, that they come out very well.

So, you know, there's probably some element of this. So, and of course, Trump has just been receiving MBS. And it's been an enormously friendly meeting. So, you know, you're whispering in, I can imagine this, actually, whispering into MBS's ear. Look, if you've got any worries and concerns about Europe, apparently the Saudis have been particularly forceful in warning the Europeans, don't do this. Valeri Urbin, the CEO of Euricleer, has said that Arab clients and Asian clients have been contacting her and have been warning her about don't do this thing.

This is far too dangerous. So I can easily imagine that Trump is telling MBS. look, if you're really worried about what the Europeans are doing, why not transfer all your money, all your funds out of Euroclear and put them on deposit in New York instead? I can even find you, the federal depositories where you can have this money and, of course, it is completely safe. I can believe that. I'm not, of course, saying it's happening because I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Having said that, I don't think that Ursula and indeed maths need the Americans to tell them to do this. I think that they are driven to do this themselves. I mean, I've never got the sense that Ursula herself has at any point wanted to back off this project Ukraine. She is becoming increasingly obsessed by it. She is completely obsessed by it. And I think others in the commission are too, and probably Mertzes. I think that she pins, in her own mind, the whole survival of the EU project on the success of project Ukraine. Ursula is also obsessed with centralization of power, right?

So she's making a lot of moves in that direction. She's creating a Ministry of Truth. She's creating an Intel agency, which will fall under the... the European Commission, fact-checking service for news and information. She's creating all of these things underneath her control, right? So she's trying to centralize everything. We have a lot of reports about the EU Army. They're creating a military Schengen so that European member states can easily transport

military assets across Europe. This is going to fall under the defense commissioner in Europe. The last piece to the puzzle is taxation in Eurobonds. So perhaps you push the seizing of the Russian assets in order to present option number two or the other option, which is, look, forget about the seizing of Russian assets. Fine. You don't want that. Well, then let's just go for the whole Eurobonds collective debt and just be done with it,

which is something that the EU has been trying to do from even before Herschel has time. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that if she can't get her hands on the Russian assets, she would be very happy with debt mutualization and Eurobonds and taxation. And of course, Mautz is also talking about. uniting European capital markets. So, you know, we don't have, we have one single big European stock exchange and all of that.

So absolutely, you know, this is fully on the agenda. If Ursula can get that instead, I mean, she would be perfectly happy with it. I think she would prefer to get her hands on the Russian assets because there's also a degree of animus now against the Russians. So, I mean, there is that, there is that side of it too. And it's punishing the Russians also. But objectively, debt mutualization, a single unified European financial market with a stock market and Eurobonds and taxes underpinning it and a finance ministry in Brussels, that would suit her absolutely fine.

Objectively, that's closer to what she wants than seizing the Russian assets. I should quickly add that on the question of the Russian assets, the Russians have now prepared their own plan, apparently, for what will happen if such a step is taken. The first thing they will do is that they will seize the assets of European companies in Russia. And this is not a small or idle threat because those assets still form part of those companies' CAPEX. and I know that shareholders are worried about the effect of that on the value of their shares.

I know this because some of them have actually written to me about this. So, I mean, this is one thing. But the other thing that the Russians are going to do is that they're going to bring legal action. And they're not just going to bring legal action in Europe because Euroclair operates globally. They can bring legal action in all sorts of places. and Euroclear has all but said that if legal action is brought, it will lose. Lose big. It will lose big.

That'll be a catastrophe in and of itself. Exactly. I mean, what Valéry Urban is effectively saying, by the way, what we've been saying all along, all of these schemes, the very fact that you're coming up with schemes, confirms, only confirms, that you know that what you are doing is legally wrong. So it is already an admission that this whole thing is illegal. And essentially, that is what Valeri Urban is now saying. All right, we will end the video there, the durand.com.

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