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The level of derangement among far too many of our putative betters has reached such a fever pitch that mere narcissism and grandiosity seem inadequate as explanations. The latest example comes via the Wall Street Journal, in an exclusive account as to how the Trump Administration intends to avail itself of Russian central bank frozen assets, with the fig leaf that of course Russia would go along to curry favor with Trump and because investing in a busted up country is clearly a fabulous commercial opportunity. Let us not forget that the US tried a more adult version of this plan and got nowhere. It hired BlackRock as an adviser to flog a Ukraine reconstruction fund,1 back the days when the tale that Ukraine would win the war seems much more plausible, and got nowhere.

The interesting angle here is that the US has pitched this goofy idea to EU officials, since they control the bulk of the frozen Russian central bank assets which has been reported most recently as 140 billion euros worth in Euroclear.2

Mind you, the Europeans, in the persons of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, and her allies in planned Russian asset heist like Emmanuel Macron, Kier Starmer, Frederich Merz, and Kaja Kallas, are as deluded, but less flamboyantly so, since they are having to labor mightily to paint a veneer of legality over a theft that puts the budgets of EU member states. Part of von der Leyen’s scheme is grandly to apportion liability to each and every member state that is made to participate in this heist, even if it is fiercely opposed.

But back to the more obviously bonkers Trump plan. The Journal account suggests that the Trump plan to use Russia frozen assets in a US managed “fund” for Ukraine reconstruction, which was part of leaked 28 points plan, has set off the frenzy in European capitals to grab them pronto, before the US and Russia can come to an agreement….as if that were at all likely. From U.S. Blueprint to Rewire Economies of Russia, Ukraine Sets Off Clash With Europe:

The Trump administration in recent weeks has handed its European counterparts a series of documents, each a single page, laying out its vision for the reconstruction of Ukraine and the return of Russia to the global economy…

The U.S. blueprint has been spelled out in appendices to current peace proposals that aren’t public but were described to The Wall Street Journal by U.S. and European officials. The documents detail plans for U.S. financial firms and other businesses to tap roughly $200 billion of frozen Russian assets for projects in Ukraine—including a massive new data center to be powered by a nuclear plant currently occupied by Russian troops.

Let’s stop here. The Zaporzhizhia nuclear power plant is not merely “currently occupied”. It is in one of the four oblasts that voted to join Russia and Russia, per its constitution, has made part of Russia. There is simply no way that the West is going to get use of it on anything other than arms-length commercial terms.

Any discussion of power or reconstruction of Ukraine generally ignore the fact that no one other than Russia can execute it. Recall that Russia has already done considerable damage to not just Ukraine electricity transmission but increasing to generation as well. Ukraine’s grid runs on old Soviet standards, as does Russia now. Western businesses simply are not going to set up production capacity to make want amounts to a very large special order of the needed repair and replacement kit. Russian firms are in that business and could be persuaded or induced to gear up for the needed big but time-limited output surge.

And of course there is the overriding highly optimistic assumption, that there will be an economically and politically independent Ukraine after the war. Ukraine and the EU are laboring mightily to make sure that does not happen. Their continued intransigence and belligerence have made the case to a highly risk-averse Putin that Russia will have to dictate outcomes on the battlefield. So the only question is how much Russia decides it has to add to Russia versus make into a rump Ukraine overseen by a friendly regime.

Back to the Journal:

Another appendix offers America’s broad-strokes vision for bringing Russia’s economy in from the cold, with U.S. companies investing in strategic sectors from rare-earth extraction to drilling for oil in the Arctic, and helping to restore Russian energy flows to Western Europe and the rest of the world.

This is the worst sort of arrogant paternalism, as if Russia still needed the West.

The quiet scandal in global economics:

From 2008 to 2025, Russia’s real GDP per capita grew faster than Germany, the UK, and France despite sanctions, SWIFT bans, export controls, frozen assets and a full-scale geopolitical confrontation. pic.twitter.com/0C7ijjrCcc

— . (@Lucid_Watcher) December 5, 2025

But not to worry, the Journal reassures us that Russia really is hurting:

A new assessment by a Western intelligence agency, reviewed by the Journal, said that Russia has technically been in recession for six months and that the challenges of running its war economy while trying to control prices are presenting a systemic risk to its banking sector.

One has to assume the Russian negotiators were also informed about this scheme (a version of this idea, but perhaps less detailed, was to be respectfully receptive when the US presented this asset, erm, usage plan, as opposed to bursting out laughing, or alternatively getting angry over being presumed to be total chumps.

Returning to the Journal:

Some European officials who have seen the documents said they weren’t sure whether to take some of the U.S. proposals seriously. One official compared them to President Trump’s vision of building a Riviera-style development in Gaza. Another, referring to the proposed U.S.-Russia energy deals, said it was an economic version of the 1945 conference where World War II victors divvied up Europe. “It’s like Yalta,” he said.

Readers are encouraged to opine, but given the early similarly high-handed-while-also-barmy Ukraine “raw earths” scheme that the US browbeat Ukraine into accepting after some negotiation, yours truly thinks this is part of Team Trump following the Red Queen practice of working to believe impossible things. Such as:

U.S. officials involved in the negotiations say Europe’s approach would quickly deplete the frozen funds. Washington, on the other hand, would tap Wall Street executives and private-equity billionaires to invest the money and expand the amount available to invest. One official involved in the talks said the pot could grow to $800 billion under American management. “Our sensibility is that we really understand financial growth,” the official said.

Now to the European part. Ursula von der Leyen is attempting to ram through legislation that would allow the Commission to seize the frozen assets in Euroclear pursuant to emergency powers. Belgium has objected vociferously since it would be on the hook if Euroclear were sued successfully. The ECB has refused to provide a backstop:

I asked ECB President Lagarde about the potential impact on financial stability of using Russian frozen assets held at Euroclear (140 billion). The ECB has (rightly) indicated that a guarantee would be a breach of the Treaty. Other options urgently needed for Ukraine👇 @wbeke pic.twitter.com/ih9j89n5GV

— Dirk Gotink (@DirkGotink) December 3, 2025

Since Euroclear has also said in no uncertain terms that it thinks the asset heist, prettied up as trying to use the assets as collateral for loans, is illegal, I am not sure how it can be compelled to turn over the funds, given the general rule of “possession is 9/10 of the law” and the near-certainty that Euroclear and Belgium would seek an injunction too.

❗️Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever called the European Commission’s proposal to use frozen Russian assets to provide Ukraine with a reparations loan “theft,” reports VRT NWS.

“There are certainly better solutions than stealing the Russian central bank’s money. This is a… pic.twitter.com/KJR0mQWD5D

— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) December 10, 2025

Aside from Russia suing Euroclear in a non-EU court where Euroclear operates (readers can opine, but I see Singapore courts provide for discovery), Russia can also take matters into its own hands:

One of the unintended consequences of the EU’s batshit crazy plan of ̶s̶t̶e̶a̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ appropriating and repurposing Russia’s frozen assets is the fact that Euroclear, a body responsible for processing equities, bonds, derivatives, and investment fund transfers, still holds… pic.twitter.com/6RHLDTpjEk

— Nina 🐙 Byzantina (@NinaByzantina) December 10, 2025

But weirdly (or perhaps following its friends at the Commission) the Financial Times in a story yesterday tried to make Hungary’s Viktor Orban, regularly demonized for being too friendly with Russia, into the bad guy. From a Wednesday story:

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1 BlackRock never committed to invest in this scheme, contrary to some claims.

2 The total amount reported has varied, in part because the EU has been stealing the interest, and some accounts may include the assets of sanctioned Russian entities and individuals along with the central bank holdings.