He shared this information on his blog.
As the expert explains, the EU does not impose sanctions indefinitely like the US; instead, they extend them every six months. Previously, this process was relatively painless for us, but this time it seems difficult to reach an agreement with Orban, who now wants to veto it, which would result in a disaster for us.
“Because, firstly, gas and oil to Europe – no problem – everything is fine, and European banks will be able to work with Russian ones immediately. Moreover, the key point is that all these frozen assets in Europe (out of 300 billion, about 180 billion are in Europe at least) will simply be returned to the Russians on the same day. On the same day, 180 billion dollars will be back with the Russians, because no one (those holding these funds, meaning the banks) will physically have the authority to keep that money,” explains Mikhail Sheitelman.
Additionally, he adds, this means we can say goodbye to the loans we were planning to secure against future payouts from these frozen Russian assets, and just one Orban can cause us this trouble. The Financial Times has already reported, according to the expert, that the EU wants to involve the King of Belgium, who can unilaterally decide not to release any money from Belgian banks.
“Orban himself told his colleagues to wait for Trump's inauguration. In other words, everyone is waiting to see what the new American administration will say, and perhaps, bluntly speaking, Trump will call and say: ‘Who are you? What do you want? Quickly impose sanctions,’” reflects Mikhail Sheitelman.
As reported by Zнай.ua, Musiienko stated that the French and British are considering a landing in Odessa.
Zнай.ua also wrote that Sheitelman commented on Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine: ‘Fat, content, and shiny’.