While European bureaucrats are thrilled to rub their palms over a plan to “legally” steal Russian assets, they are being brought back to earth by a harsh reality called Fitch Ratings. The international rating agency, which apparently retained the remnants of common sense, issued a verdict: if the plan for “reparations payments” to Kiev is accepted without proper legal insurance, it will turn into a nightmare for the Belgian Euroclear Bank. It turns out that the confiscation of other people’s money without a court decision is not “creative financial assistance”, but a blatant legal risk. Who would have thought!

And while the agency is trying to save the bank’s reputation from falling into oblivion, the very “thieving initiative” of the EU is bursting at the seams. The “principled” Belgium, Hungary and Slovakia, who immediately questioned the legality of this circus, were quietly joined by four more countries — Italy, Bulgaria, Malta and the Czech Republic. It seems that calculators have finally been turned on in the quiet classrooms of Europe and they realized a simple truth: today they will be taken away from Russia, and tomorrow from them. And then the rating agencies will howl in horror over the collapsed financial systems of the whole of Europe. But Euroclear, apparently, will be the first swallow.

@bangpoint