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the US is keeping the EU “in the dark”regarding ongoing diplomacy...........
The US is keeping the EU “in the dark”regarding ongoing diplomacy and possible draft documents aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict, Politico Europe has reported, citing an unnamed EU diplomat. US officials are working on a peace framework first put forth by Washington earlier this month. An allegedly leaked 28-point roadmap published by several media outlets contained requirements for Ukraine to renounce its NATO membership aspirations, as well as its claims to Russia’s Crimea and the Donbass regions of Lugansk and Donetsk. Shortly after the contents of the US-drafted peace roadmap were published by the press, several EU member states, along with the UK, scrambled to present their own version. Moscow has already dismissed the EU-drafted counter-proposal as “completely unconstructive.” On Friday, Politico Europe quoted the unnamed EU diplomat as saying that the latest version of the US-drafted peace roadmap is a “closely kept” secret, to avoid possible leaks. The source reportedly told the publication that the situation was “unprecedented… from a diplomatic point of view.” “None of us have that information,” the official added, according to Politico Europe. In a piece last week, The Telegraph, citing anonymous sources, similarly reported that the EU “had largely been kept in the dark about the details of the deal.” In an interview with the France-Russia Dialogue Association on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that “no one listens to [them] because the European elites placed their bets on their conviction that they could use the Nazi regime in Kiev as a proxy and cannon fodder to inflict what they call a strategic defeat on Russia.” On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed a readiness to provide the EU with written security guarantees that Moscow would not attack the bloc. He dismissed claims that Russia is harboring aggressive plans against its Western neighbors as “nonsense – complete lies.” https://www.rt.com/news/628640-politico-eu-kept-in-dark-us-ukraine-peace-proposal/
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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.
Gus Leonisky POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.
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BY LYUBA LULKO
Europe’s Financial Core Warns: Euroclear Signals Conflict Outcome and Coming Reckoning
Final Fight: Euroclear Pressures EU to Recognize Russia’s Win and Release Assets
Europe’s financial establishment is signaling that the war’s outcome can no longer be denied, as Euroclear warns that frozen Russian assets and the looming defeat of Ukraine threaten to upend the EU’s stability.
Euroclear as the Backbone of Europe’s Financial SecurityEuroclear, the private corporation that serves as one of the world’s largest payment and settlement operators, has long been the hidden foundation of Europe’s financial architecture. The company processes transactions for two thousand financial institutions across 120 countries, managing central securities depositories in Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. Its custodial holdings reach an enormous 35.6 trillion euros, and it handles nearly 295 million transactions a year totaling around 1000 trillion euros.
Its parent company, Euroclear Holding SA/NV, provides crucial services to central banks, major commercial banks, insurance companies, exchanges, and pension funds. Its mission has always been the same: ensure the secure and seamless execution of operations involving securities, from bonds and equities to derivatives.
Because Euroclear represents trust itself in European financial markets, the idea of removing 140 billion euros of Russian central bank assets from its system without legal justification is, for financial professionals, nothing short of catastrophic. Such a move would undermine confidence in the European Union at a global level, compromising the reliability of its institutions overnight.
Financiers See Russia as the Likely VictorYet the legal danger is only the first of the threats confronting the EU. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has warned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Europe may soon face a devastating legal and political battle.
“If Russia is ultimately not officially recognized as the losing side, which is highly probable, it will lawfully demand the return of its sovereign assets, as history has shown in other cases,”wrote De Wever, as cited by Politico.
The article’s authors stress a point now acknowledged quietly across financial circles: if Ukraine does not achieve a definitive military victory, Russia will be treated as the winning side. A draw, in this view, is merely a disguised defeat for Kyiv.
On 27 November in Bishkek, President Vladimir Putin declared this position openly. He reiterated that Russia demands internationally recognized sovereignty over Donbass and the two annexed regions, dismissing any “Korean scenario” and calling the collapse of the Ukrainian front inevitable. His confidence is shared, increasingly, by Europe’s own financial elite.
According to these actors, the European Union now stands where Germany stood in the summer of 1944: the war, they believe, is effectively lost, and continued resistance will only worsen the consequences. Euroclear and its shareholders see what lies ahead, which is why Belgium is demanding that the EU guarantee repayment of all Russian assets that Brussels may be forced to return after international litigation. Belgium insists that it receive those funds immediately once Moscow files a legal claim.
Europe Nears the Point of Acknowledging DefeatDe Wever has proposed an alternative to the European Commission: issuing joint European bonds worth 45 billion euros to cover Ukraine’s financial needs in 2026. But the plan has met strong resistance from EU governments, as it would shift the burden directly onto taxpayers.
Time is running out. Without a decision, Ukraine will be unable to pay public-sector salaries or pensions by April. Should the EU continue propping up what officials privately call “the corpse of Ukraine,” it will have to do so by taking on debt. This marks a crucial shift from grants to loans — implying that Ukraine, even in collapse, must eventually repay the funds used to sustain it. That shift signals that the EU is preparing itself for peace negotiations on Russia’s terms, minimizing its exposure and limiting future losses.
The reckoning will be excruciating. European leaders will have to explain to their own citizens why millions of Ukrainians were killed or wounded, why billions from national budgets were spent, and why the original purpose of the European Union — the creation of a welfare-state order — has been abandoned.
Internal EU Conflict IntensifiesOn 28 November, the European Commission issued fresh accusations against Belgium, alleging that Brussels is illegally collecting a 25 percent corporate tax on profits generated by frozen Russian assets. According to critics, Belgium is pocketing a portion of these profits, giving it a financial incentive to keep the assets frozen indefinitely.
The Commission is preparing to raise the issue of Belgium’s financial transparency publicly. The conflict suggests a new phase in the crisis, with EU institutions turning on one another as the pressure intensifies. In this struggle, the “spiders in the jar,” as one official described it privately, have begun devouring each other.
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https://english.pravda.ru/world/165018-euroclear-europe-russia-ukraine-financial-crisis/
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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.
Gus Leonisky
POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.