By Angelo Giuliano
The big picture
Picture this: You are the European Union — rich, powerful, and united. You have frozen 210 billion euros of Russia's central bank money sitting in European banks. You decide this money can be used as a tool to help Ukraine in the war, punishing Russia without sending soldiers or starting a direct fight. It feels like a smart and safe way to show strength. But then, in just a few days, Russia fights back hard — not with weapons, but with clever and painful money moves. Suddenly, European companies lose everything they built in Russia over many years. The euro is no longer accepted for important trade like gas and oil. People around the world start saying the euro is losing its power and safety. What seemed like a clever plan now looks like a very big mistake.
Europe's risky plan
In late 2025, Europe faced a difficult situation. The United States was giving much less help to Ukraine, and Ukraine needed huge amounts of money for weapons, rebuilding, and survival. So European leaders looked at the large amount of Russian money they had frozen in Belgian banks. They discussed using around 105 billion dollars of it — sometimes by taking it directly, sometimes by treating it like a loan to pay for Ukraine's needs. Many people in Europe believed this was fair and just: Russia started the war, so Russia should pay the price. However, experts gave strong warnings. They said taking another country's central bank money breaks long-standing international rules. For decades, the world has agreed that central bank reserves should be safe and untouchable, even during wars. If Europe does this to Russia now, what stops other countries from doing the same to China, Saudi Arabia, or anyone else in the future? Despite these warnings, the story says Europe moved forward with the plan.
What the story says happened
According to the story, Europe took about 15 billion dollars in November 2025 and sent it to help rebuild Ukraine. Leaders celebrated this as a big victory for justice. But almost immediately, Russia responded with a strong and organized plan to strike back.
Russia's first big move: Take European companies
In only two days, Russia took control of more than 120 billion dollars worth of European businesses and investments inside Russia — an amount much larger than what Europe had taken. Major companies suffered huge losses: BP lost its 14 billion dollar share in Russian oil, Shell and TotalEnergies lost billions in their projects, and German car giants like Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes saw their factories, supply chains, and decades of hard work disappear into Russian state hands. These companies had invested time, money, and effort in Russia for many years. Now it was all gone in a flash. People in boardrooms across Frankfurt, Paris, and other cities were shocked, angry, and scared as stock prices fell and shareholders demanded answers.
Russia's second big move: No more euros for gas
Russia made a clear rule: no more payments in euros. From now on, any European country wanting to buy Russian gas or oil must pay only in Russian rubles or Chinese yuan. This forced European buyers to sell large amounts of euros to get the needed currencies. As a result, the euro became weaker while the ruble and yuan grew stronger. Prices for energy and imported goods in Europe went up quickly, causing higher inflation that hurt ordinary families.
Russia's third big move: A new safe money place
Russia then launched a new large fund together with China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, and other countries. This fund is worth 150 billion dollars and is designed as a completely safe place to keep a country's money — far away from American or European control. Many nations in Asia, Africa, and South America looked at this and thought: this is much better. They did not want to risk having their own reserves frozen like Russia's. So they began quietly moving money away from European and American banks. The euro dropped by about 8%, and borrowing money became much more expensive for European governments. This will cost Europe many billions of euros in extra interest payments for years to come.
Who really lost?
The damage spread fast across Europe. German and French companies lost enormous amounts of money and faced angry shareholders. Everyday prices rose, making life harder for normal people. Some countries, like Hungary, quickly switched to paying in rubles to get cheaper gas. Trust in European banks and financial systems fell sharply. While Russia built new partnerships and found ways to keep going, China quietly became stronger as more people used the yuan. Europe was left asking a painful question: was the small short-term win worth this huge long-term loss?
Real Facts vs The Story
In real life, as of today, Europe has not taken the main part of the Russian money. They have kept the 210 billion euros frozen, created a 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine using Europe's own budget, and only used the small interest earned from the frozen funds to provide help. Russia has made laws and talked about taking European companies, but nothing on the huge scale described in the story has actually happened yet.
The real warning
Even so, this story is a very strong warning. It shows what could happen if countries use money as a weapon in conflicts. The lesson is clear: being too proud or too quick to use financial power can backfire badly. Europe stopped before the worst possible outcome, but the big question remains — have they truly learned from this warning, or are they just delaying a bigger problem for the future?
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Angelo Giuliano:
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