Published on
12/12/2025 – 16:49 GMT+1

The European Commission has dismissed as “speculative” and groundless a lawsuit launched by the Russian Central Bank against Euroclear, the Brussels-based central securities depository that holds €185 billion in immobilised assets.

In a short statement published on Friday morning, the Russian Central Bank announced the start of legal proceedings for the “recovery of damages” and blamed Euroclear for preventing the release of the assets, which are subject to EU law.

The lawsuit was submitted to the Arbitration Court in Moscow.

The development comes with the EU still hammering out a plan to channel Russia’s sovereign assets into a zero-interest reparations loan to Ukraine, a process with Euroclear at its centre. EU leaders are meant to make a final decision when they meet on 18 December.

“Our proposal is legally robust and fully in line with EU and international law. The assets are not seized, and the principle of sovereign immunity is respected,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for the Economy, said on Friday afternoon.

“We kind of expect that Russia will continue to launch speculative legal proceedings to prevent the EU from upholding international law and to pursue the legal obligation for Russia to compensate Ukraine for the damages it has caused.”

According to Dombrovskis, all European institutions that have Russian assets, from Euroclear to private banks, will be “fully protected” against Moscow’s retaliation. The EU has controlled €210 billion in assets of the Russian Central Bank since February 2022.

The sanctions regime already allows Euroclear to “offset” any potential loss, he added.

For example, if a Russian court orders the seizure of the €17 billion that Euroclear has on Russian soil, Euroclear will be allowed offset the loss by tapping into the €30 billion that its Russian counterpart, the National Settlement Depository, has stored within the EU.

Additionally, the reparations loan, if approved, will introduce a new mechanism to deal with state-to-state disputes. If Russia seizes the sovereign assets of Belgium in retaliation, Belgium will be allowed to “offset” the lossagainst the €210 billion, while Russia will not recover the amount it has seized when the assets are freed.

The Belgian factor

The legal safeguards are meant to allay the concerns of Belgium, which remains the chief opponent of the reparations loan. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has repeatedly warned of the risk a successful legal challenge could pose.

“We put forward a proposal. We are confident in its legality and its court-proof character,” a Commission spokesperson said.

Euroclear, which declined to comment, has previously criticised the reparations loan as “very fragile”, legally risky and overtly experimental.

The lawsuit comes a day after EU countries agreed to trigger an emergency clause to immobilise the Russian Central Bank assets for the foreseeable future.

Under the new law, the €210 billion will be released only when Russia’s actions “have objectively ceased to pose substantial risks” for the European economy and Moscow has paid reparations to Kyiv “without economic and financial consequences” for the bloc – a high bar that is unlikely to be cleared any time soon, if ever.

The indefinite immobilisation is meant to further placate Belgium and Euroclear in order to facilitate the approval of the reparations loan next week.

In a separate statement, the Russian Central Bank said it “reserves the right, without further notice, to apply all available remedies and protections if the proposed initiatives of the European Union are upheld or implemented”.

FIRST ON FOX: Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is crediting President Donald Trump for helping sustain Venezuela’s pro-democracy movement while dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to him, telling Fox News Digital that he provided critical support at a moment when Venezuelans felt abandoned by the international community.

“I am absolutely grateful to President Trump for every gesture, every signal and every moment that he has stood with the Venezuelan people. I have watched it very closely, and I know what it has meant for those who are fighting to reclaim democracy and freedom in our country,” she stated.

“A free and democratic Venezuela is not only possible — it is closer than ever. And that free Venezuela is breathing louder than ever before,” Machado said, adding that her Nobel Peace Prize is also dedicated to Trump. “This Nobel Prize is symbolic of that fight for freedom and is dedicated to the Venezuelan people and to President Trump for showing what strong leadership looks like in the moments that matter most.”

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An official familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that Machado hopes to visit the U.S. and meet the president to formally honor him for what she views as his support for the Venezuelan people.

Machado’s remarks come as she re-emerged publicly in Oslo, Norway, after spending 11 months in hiding. After a brief detention during an anti-government protest in Caracas, she went underground as pressure from the Maduro government intensified.

Her return to the public eye coincided with the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, where her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the award on her behalf. The Associated Press reported that Machado waved to cheering supporters from a hotel balcony — her first public appearance in nearly a year.

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Machado was barred from running in the 2024 presidential election despite winning the opposition primary by a wide margin, a move that drew strong criticism from Western governments.

Roxanna Vigil, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Fox News Digital that Machado remains “the most popular political figure in Venezuela,” adding that she secured “over 90% of the vote” in the opposition primary before being blocked by Maduro. “She became a real threat… and so they disqualified her from running,” Vigil said. Machado ultimately endorsed Edmundo González, who went on to win the election.

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Machado ultimately endorsed González, who was widely regarded by independent tallies of the result as having won the 2024 election, but who did not assume the presidency after Venezuela’s official National Electoral Council, controlled by Maduro allies, declared Nicolás Maduro the winner and inaugurated him for another term.

Machado has signaled she intends to return to Venezuela when conditions allow and continues to call for a peaceful transition away from Maduro’s rule.

A cautious calm has settled over the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) city of Uvira in South Kivu province, as residents begin emerging from their homes following its capture by M23 rebels.

The capture earlier this week threatens to derail a United States-brokered peace agreement, signed with much fanfare and overseen by President Donald Trump a week ago, between Congolese and Rwandan leaders, with Washington accusing Rwanda on Friday of igniting the offensive.

Regional authorities say at least 400 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in the violence between the cities of Bukavu and Uvira, both now under M23 control.

Al Jazeera is the only international broadcaster in Uvira, where correspondent Alain Uaykani on Saturday described an uneasy calm in the port city on the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika, which sits directly across from Burundi’s largest city, Bujumbura.

Uaykani said government and allied militias, known as “Wazalendo”, which had been using the city as a headquarters, began fleeing even before M23 fighters entered.

Residents who fled as the Rwanda-backed group advanced have begun returning to their homes, though most shops and businesses remain shuttered.

“People are coming out, they feel the fear is behind them,” Uaykani said, though he noted the situation remains fragile with signs of intense combat visible throughout the city.

Bienvenue Mwatumabire, a resident of Uvira, told Al Jazeera he was at work when fighting between rebels and government forces broke out, and he heard gunshots from a neighbouring village and decided to stop, but said that “today we have noticed things are getting back to normal.”

Baoleze Beinfait, another Uvira resident, said people in the city were not being harassed by the rebels, but added, “We will see how things are in the coming days.”

M23’s spokesperson defended the offensive, claiming the group had “liberated” Uvira from what he called “terrorist forces”. The rebels say they are protecting ethnic Tutsi communities in eastern DRC, a region that has seen fighting intensify since earlier this year.

The offensive, which began on December 2, has displaced more than 200,000 people across South Kivu province, according to local United Nations partners.

Rwanda accused of backing rebels

South Kivu officials said Rwandan special forces and foreign mercenaries were operating in Uvira “in clear violation” of both the recent Washington accords and earlier ceasefire agreements reached in Doha, Qatar.

At the UN Security Council on Friday, US ambassador Mike Waltz accused Rwanda of leading the region “towards increased instability and war,” warning that Washington would hold spoilers to peace accountable.

Waltz said Rwanda has maintained strategic control of M23 since the group re-emerged in 2021, with between 5,000 and 7,000 Rwandan troops fighting alongside the rebels in Congo as of early December.

“Kigali has been intimately involved in planning and executing the war in eastern DRC,” Waltz told the UNSC, referring to Rwanda’s capital.

Rwanda’s UN ambassador denied the allegations, accusing the DRC of violating the ceasefire. Rwanda acknowledges having troops in eastern DRC but says they are there to safeguard its security, particularly against Hutu militia groups that fled across the border to Congo after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

The fall of Uvira has raised the alarm in neighbouring Burundi, which has deployed forces to the region. Burundi’s UN ambassador warned that “restraint has its limits,” saying continued attacks would make it difficult to avoid direct confrontation between the two countries.

More than 30,000 refugees have fled into Burundi in recent days.

The DRC’s foreign minister urged the UNSC to hold Rwanda accountable, saying “impunity has gone on for far too long”.

A report by the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats project said Rwanda provided significant support to M23’s Uvira offensive, calling it the group’s most consequential operation since March.

Al Jazeera’s UN correspondent Kristen Saloomey said UNSC members were briefed by experts who noted that civilians in DRC are not benefitting from the recent agreements negotiated between Kinshasa and Kigali.

More than 100 armed groups are fighting for control of mineral-rich eastern DRC near the Rwandan border. The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with more than seven million people displaced across the region.

The M23 group is not party to the Washington-mediated negotiations between DRC and Rwanda, participating instead in separate talks with the Congolese government hosted by Qatar.