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>Leery of outright seizing all of the some $280 billion in Russian central bank assets mostly held in Europe, the Group of Seven's alternative 'Plan B' is quickly taking shape. There's been greater consensus of support for instead using the windfall profits gained from reinvesting Russian assets frozen in Europe to support the purchase of weapons for Ukraine.

>Days ago the The Wall Street Journal detailed that "Two-thirds of the roughly $300 billion in reserves were sitting in European banks and clearinghouses. As those assets mature and are reinvested, they have generated profits that EU officials say could reach 15 billion euros, equivalent to more than $16 billion, over the next four years." The blocked assets currently generate an estimated $3.6 billion of net profits per year.

>On Thursday the United States unveiled a new plan to allies centered on what are being dubbed "freedom bonds". The initiative would create a special purpose vehicle to issue at least $50 billion of bonds generated by the frozen assets, Bloomberg reports.

>Britain has meanwhile been at the forefront of countries arguing that the total of all underlying Russian assets should be fully confiscated and used for Ukraine. "Our view is simple: One day, Russia will have to pay reparations and it doesn’t make sense to wait for those reparations. It makes better sense to use the frozen assets and to make that money available now," UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said last week.

>But this more aggressive approach has consistently met with firm resistance among the other powerful European allies.

zerohedge.com/geopolitical/freedom-bonds-us-wants-50bn-bond-ukraine-backed-frozen-russian-assets

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