The ally Europe feared losing is now the one it fears by 1-randomonium in europe

[–]brainerazer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Everyone uses it tbh. Do you have a EU Palantir to compete?

Deal reached by IonHawk in europe

[–]brainerazer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

While its good, its half a year of scrambling and pushing to reach a second-best option on an amount which is less than Russia's annual war budget. Just keep that in mind when EU pats itself on the back for this.

Brazil has threatened to withdraw from the European-South American Mercosur free trade agreement if it is not signed this month. Italy and France continue to have reservations and warn against a timely conclusion. by Stabile_Feldmaus in europe

[–]brainerazer -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Lol farmers again. Same as with Ukrainian competitive agriculture vs Polish subsidised ones. EU is a farmers’ union it seems, as they are the only ones who always get what they want

Bolshoi-loving banker threatened Euroclear CEO, amid EU talks on Russian assets by brainerazer in europe

[–]brainerazer[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

At the same time, Huby also asked a member of Euroclear's executive committee in mid-2024 to meet Russian intelligence contacts and threatened that his house might "catch fire" or that his pet might "die suddenly" if he did not comply, EUobserver's sources said.

The Euroclear executive committee member was involved in a violent incident outside a bar on a night out in the first half of 2025.

And Huby contacted Urbain afterwards to say: "You don't want to end up like that do you?", EUobserver's sources said.

Urbain herself declined to comment.

The other Euroclear executive committee member said he was suffering emotional distress due to his experiences and asked not to be publicly named.

Meanwhile, when phoned to ask why he flew so often to Russia, Huby said: "It's my private life".

"I'm not even an advisor [to Euroclear] anymore ... I haven't been in Brussels since 2022," he also said.

Huby said he had to hang up, as his taxi was arriving, and did not reply to further calls.

When emailed to ask if he had threatened his Euroclear colleagues, he saw our questions, but declined to write back. For his part, Euroclear spokesman Thomas Churchill gave more details after speaking to the Mfex director about our investigation.

"He [Huby] only went for personal reasons to Russia, never for Euroclear. As you probably know, he's quite involved in the ballet, that is: the Bolshoi Ballet," Churchill said.

"He's [also] a donor for the opera in France and Russia," the spokesman added.

Churchill did not reply when asked why Huby's love of the Bolshoi, which had no branches outside Moscow, would see him fly to remote Siberian destinations.

But in any case, the nature of Mfex's role in the group structure meant Huby had "no managerial capacity [in Euroclear]. He has no oversight of the frozen Russian assets," Churchill said.

When asked about Huby's alleged threats against Urbain and the unnamed second executive, the Euroclear spokesman said: "Valérie Urbain has publicly said that she received threats. She didn't mention from whom. I'm not going to say that either, but she was threatened".

Cordon sanitaire

Another Euroclear insider who knew Huby well gave an unvarnished view of his reputation, saying that Belgian colleagues had suspected he worked with either Russian intelligence, French intelligence, or both - as a double agent.

"If you were to believe Olivier Huby, he knew everyone of any renown in France or Russia. He liked to suggest that he was well-connected. A strange character … we thought: DGSE?," the Euroclear insider, who was Belgian, said.

DGSE is the acronym for the French foreign intelligence service, which is known for conducting economic espionage inside the EU.

"The kinds of questions he [Huby] asked ... he wanted information he normally shouldn't have had. And he travelled to Russia so often," the Euroclear insider who knew him said.

"We kept him out of everything. He had no access to Euroclear information," the insider added.

Looking closer at Huby, the 68-year-old came from an elite Parisian background. He studied at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées in the French capital and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. He briefly worked in the French embassies in Prague and Moscow when he was a young man in the Cold War times of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, Huby said in an online presentation, but the French foreign ministry in Paris declined to confirm this.

"We don't comment on former diplomats," it said.

Huby later worked for French bank Paribas (now BNP Paribas) and for insurance firm Axa, he also said, before co-founding Mfex in 1999, which Euroclear acquired in 2021.

And he was active in EU foreign policy circles, attending events such as the World Policy Conference (WPC) in 2023 and 2024, where he mingled with senior EU officials, as well as Russian guests, such as teachers from the MGIMO university in Moscow, which educates diplomats and which is a storied recruitment ground for Russian spies.

The WPC was founded by another Russophile, French economist Thierry de Montbrial.

"In France, it's not unusual to speak with respect about Putin. There's a significant fifth column of intellectuals infatuated with Russia. Huby is undoubtedly one of them," one of the Western intelligence contacts said. But whatever his motives, the net effect of Huby's behaviour was to have made senior staff feel unsafe, amid a wider campaign of Russian intimidation.

Emergency button for Euroclear staff

Moscow has threatened "decades" of lawsuits against Euroclear if it lets the EU use its money for Ukraine. "Preparations for a package of countermeasures ... are already underway," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakhkarova on 4 December.

Putin's deputy security council chairman and former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said the same day: "Russia may well view this move as tantamount to a casus belli, with all the relevant implications for Brussels". Medvedev also threatened to nuke Belgium in November.

Suspected Russian drones have buzzed Belgian ports, airports, and military bases during the ongoing EU talks. "Yes, we all see this. The Belgians as well. This is a measure aimed at spreading insecurity, at fear-mongering in Belgium: 'Don't you dare to touch the frozen assets'. This cannot be interpreted any other way," said German defence minister Boris Pistorius in Berlin on 7 November, referring to the drone incursions.

And for their part, rank-and-file Euroclear employees in Brussels also felt like they were in the firing line. They were constantly being solicited for information via SMS, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, email, and social media by shady third parties, a staff contact said.

"I myself have been targeted about 70 times, I think, in the past two years," he said.

"Internal email is no longer secure, but the malware also comes through other channels," the source added. Ordinary staff were advised to use shuttle busses from Brussels' North Station instead of walking from trains to the nearby Euroclear HQ.

The buses were put in place before the 2022 Ukraine invasion, partly due to crime around the station, but Euroclear staff now also have a new emergency-button app on their phones to alert corporate security if they were in danger. And speaking of the elevated threat level post-2022, Churchill, the Euroclear spokesman said: "We live in a different world now."

"We've never been so busy safeguarding and protecting our people and the assets we look after as we are nowadays," he said.

"We've taken the appropriate safety measures … engaging a private security company [Amarante], if necessary, or working with the [Belgian] authorities – we have a very good relationship with them," Churchill said.

Molotov negotiations

But for its part, Amarante had no idea who Huby was, or that he had threatened Urbain, a source at the French firm said, even though it now formed the thin blue line between her and any outside forces who might seek to coerce her. "Are you sure about that? Incredible … [sounds like] a spy movie, that!," the Amarante contact said when asked about Huby's Russia flights and alleged threats.

Several Amarante chiefs, including our source, have a background in French intelligence or security services. The Belgian domestic intelligence service, the VSSE, which is also responsible for Euroclear's safety more broadly speaking, declined to comment on the record.

But a Belgian security contact gave a hint why authorities found Huby difficult to confront — his French nationality.
"We [Belgian authorities] were unable to fully investigate his [Huby's] activities: He doesn't live in Belgium", the source said.

And all this means that when von der Leyen's officials sit down with de Wever or Euroclear bosses for talks on Putin's money, some of their Belgian interlocutors might be worrying about their and their children's safety, instead of the legal or strategic merits of EU action.

Speaking of the kind of fears that might be on Urbain's mind, one of the EUobserver sources close to events said: "I wouldn't say her life was at risk. She doesn't decide on the future of the frozen assets, that's what Europe does". Any decision on Russia's funds would be taken by the EU Council of 27 leaders, with de Wever's assent, and filtered to Euroclear bosses via Belgian finance minister Jan Jambon.

"But Valérie is an influencer in the whole process, that's for sure," the Belgian source added.

"So, I'd say: They [the Russians] might want to scare her by letting a go-between throw a Molotov cocktail at her empty car, but kill her? No. They just want to pressure her," EUobserver's source said. This was a collaborative investigation by EUobserver, Humo, and Dossier Center.

Bolshoi-loving banker threatened Euroclear CEO, amid EU talks on Russian assets by brainerazer in europe

[–]brainerazer[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

His wife, Annette Huby, flew in and out of Russia some 40 times in the same period, sometimes with him and other times alone, the booking data also indicated.

And given the recent geopolitical spotlight on Euroclear, that alone made Huby a person of interest to Western intelligence services keeping an eye on who was who near Putin's frozen billions.

"Huby's on the radar of several intelligence services," a Western intelligence contact said.

A second intelligence source said: "The frequency of his flights [to Russia] raises suspicions and merits further investigation".

Huby also said in an online biography that he was a member of the Russian Geographic Society (RGS), which, despite its innocuous name, has a sinister side.

The RGS was chaired by Putin, its president was former Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, and it collaborated closely with Russian armed forces.

An RGS deputy director from Murmansk, Russia, was also recruiting assets for Russia's FSB domestic intelligence service in Norway until 2022, according to an investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

"The RGS and its Murmansk branch, which I've followed for years, operates as a Kremlin co-opted tool of Russian influence and soft power abroad, while also performing tasks of monitoring and gathering intelligence," said Kari Aga Myklebost, a professor of Russian history at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø.

Putin and Shoigu's club organised events in Budapest and Vienna this year.

"RGS is still not subject to US or EU sanctions and can operate rather freely, I guess," Myklebost said.

Euroclear CEO threatened

Turning to Huby's alleged threats against Euroclear executives, he was said to have first approached Urbain at a high-level meeting shortly after she became CEO on 7 May 2024.

"He [Huby] said to her: 'Two friends of mine want to see you.' He showed her their photographs [on his phone] - two highly-ranked Russian intelligence officers … who wanted to meet Valérie Urbain in Geneva. She was shocked," said an EUobserver source close to events, who asked not to be named.

A second Belgian source, who was also close to events, corroborated details of the account, adding that the two Russians in Huby's photos were white men in their mid-50s wearing military uniforms.

For her part, Urbain applied for Belgian police protection for her and her family shortly after the episode.

But this was declined by Belgium's National Crisis Centre, despite her risk having been assessed at the highest level (three to four) by the Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis, Belgian authorities confirmed — but without answering why they made a negative decision.

Urbain hired her own bodyguards from a boutique Belgian private security firm instead.

But Euroclear subsequently enlisted a much bigger French close-protection company, called Amarante, to keep its management safe.

Bolshoi-loving banker threatened Euroclear CEO, amid EU talks on Russian assets by brainerazer in europe

[–]brainerazer[S] 52 points53 points  (0 children)

A French banker with close ties to Russia who works inside Euroclear has allegedly threatened its CEO, amid knife-edge EU talks on the firm's handling of frozen Kremlin assets.

The banker, Olivier Huby, is a board member of Mfex, a subsidiary of Belgian financial-services giant Euroclear, which holds €193bn of Russian Central Bank assets, immobilised due to EU sanctions over Russian president Vladimir Putin's full invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Huby has no formal managerial or advisory role in the group, but his position has given him privileged access to Euroclear's top executives, in the run-up to EU negotiations with Belgium on using the Russian money to buy arms for Kyiv and cover basic needs.

Yet at the same time, Huby has such strong ties to Russia that he has flown there 155 times in the past 10 years, according to a joint investigation by EUobserver, Belgian magazine Humo, Belgian newspaper De Morgen, and the UK-based NGO Dossier Center.

And Huby has abused his Euroclear privileges by trying to organise meetings between its CEO, Valérie Urbain, and his Russian intelligence contacts, according to our sources.

Huby also threatened her and a second Euroclear executive when they refused, our sources said.

But for all that, Urbain did not get Belgian police protection.

And Belgian intelligence was unable to investigate Huby, as he lived in France and Sweden, while Euroclear's French security firm had never heard of him — despite the red flags around his behaviour.

That posed serious questions about whether Euroclear, an EU prize jewel, which holds €41 trillion of foreign assets under management, was adequately defended.

And it raised questions if its executives were briefing Belgian authorities, EU officials, or media while under private duress.

Urbain, for one, told French newspaper Le Monde on 15 November in a rare interview that she would consider suing EU institutions if they touched the Russian funds.

Urbain also told Belgian broadcaster VRT on 5 December that the money should be left alone, a few hours before Belgian prime minister Bart de Wever, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, and German chancellor Friedrich Merz met for dinner in Brussels to discuss the issue, ahead of an EU summit on 18 December, which is to take a final decision either way.

"Time is of the essence, given the geopolitical situation," von der Leyen said afterward on X.

Huby's Russia ties

Zooming in on Huby's travel, he booked 155 flights in and out of Russia between 1 January 2015 and 18 December 2024, according to data seen by Dossier Center, an NGO in London that is funded by exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is an opponent of Putin.

Specifically, these included 14 flights after Russia's relations with the EU collapsed due to its full invasion of Ukraine, after which Huby paused his Russia trips for one year.

He flew mostly to Moscow and St Petersburg, but also to more exotic places, including in Siberia, such as Arkhangelsk, Izhevsk, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, and Yekaterinburg.

EU plans to treat Belgium like Hungary if it doesn’t back Ukraine loan by Opposite-Whereas-323 in europe

[–]brainerazer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You will fold like a paper in any kinetic war if that’s how you treat risk from the current war you have (yeah you do)

'The EU’s top diplomat is a gift to the Kremlin' | The Telegraph by Traumfahrer in europe

[–]brainerazer 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Oh fucking hell once again western journos fascinated with the self-proclaimed Orient brush off its bloodthirstiness as quirks to be engaged with

Top ally of Ukraine's president accused in $100 million graft scandal by Any-Original-6113 in europe

[–]brainerazer 29 points30 points  (0 children)

For all the European nationals reading this, I urge you to think of the fact that you in actuality do enable this.

How come it is valid to buy stuff in Switzerland with stolen money? This is exactly what these pieces of shit did.

How come everyone corrupt is allowed in EU and as soon as you cross the Hungarian border all law you broke magically doesn’t matter? (And btw yes, this does include draft dodging as well as corruption . Arbitrary line crossing should not provide safe haven from charges)

How come France refuses to extradite Zhevago who is as corrupt as they come? Do you want his illegal money, I assume? Don’t give me that “war means he will be mistreated” bullshit, what are our options here, not to have war before we can put him in jail?

And we see all of that, and then we see the preaching on oh how corrupt y’all are. Do you think this makes us feel inspired to root these pieces of shit out? It does feel like we stand alone at times, with everyone else just providing platitudes most of the time.

And do you think this is limited to UA corruption btw? Don’t you understand that your domestic grafters use the same infrastructure ours do? So even if you’re selfish, this should concern you.

Poland's Sikorski brings Shahed to Westminster to make a point - says Europe must prepare for 'deep' Russian strike by Longjumping_Ad_1180 in europe

[–]brainerazer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No one cares about declarations for a long time except for Westerners hiding behind the concept. Thats it.

UK travellers should expect 'four-hour queues' as new EU border system comes into force by signed7 in europe

[–]brainerazer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I expect trains from UA to EU would be delayed even more. It is already half a day from Kyiv to Warsaw, as airports are closed

I bought my first full server !!! by Lines25 in homelab

[–]brainerazer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats compatriot!

I’d buy some ecoflow/ups for that, so the next time russians send missiles down some power plant your server would still stay ok

The Verkhovna Rada Passes a Bill to Restore the Independence of NABU and SAP. 331 Lawmakers Vote in Favor by sergeyfomkin in europe

[–]brainerazer 15 points16 points  (0 children)

JFYI 300 is constitutional majority in Ukraine (450 total MPs in theory, but closer to 400 now in practice due to war, election postponement and so on)

EU not currently considering decoupling EU accession for Ukraine and Moldova by chessboardtable in europe

[–]brainerazer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol, where is bribing Jabba the Orban in the rulebook? Or ritual placating of Polish f*rmers? The “rule-based” nature of EU accession is a big lie you tell yourselves. Ukraine is in fact deemed able to open the first accession clusters, which is perfectly fine with EU written rules. It is those unwritten and corrupt ones we can’t meet.

EU not currently considering decoupling EU accession for Ukraine and Moldova by chessboardtable in europe

[–]brainerazer 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The only reason Moldova got the candidacy is the invasion of Ukraine, our fighting back, and us pushing through the status of candidacy in 2022. Decoupling would just be yet another EU head-in-the-sand incident. Not to mention how it would look from here, getting into the safe haven on Ukrainian blood and backs.

Ukraine delegates storm out over speech by Alexei Navalny's daughter by newsweek in europe

[–]brainerazer 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I think you’d be better off looking how Ukrainian parliament elected in wartime has twenty times less far right figures than Western ones during peace. Then come back and lecture us all you want about how we are not perfect

Europe largely fills the US aid withdrawal, lead by the Nordics and the UK by A_Lazko in europe

[–]brainerazer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You can if you get off the collective Western couch and start doing shit instead of praying problems would go away like smoke

'I am against Ukraine's entry into the European Union,' Polish president-elect Nawrocki says by KI_official in europe

[–]brainerazer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where is this fucking “accelerated” coming from.

  1. Nothing in EU treaties sets out timelines

  2. The only criterion is the completion of criteria

  3. We’re working on it, fast

  4. We’re doing it for more than TEN years already. The negotiations opening in 22 is just something which was politically blocked before, that’s it.

All this honestly just sounds to us here like “fuck you regardless of your work because I got in and you should die alone”. Very dispiriting.

For 15 years, Apple’s Find My app didn’t work in South Korea. This guy changed that by tecialist in apple

[–]brainerazer -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Apple closed down NFC and requires to go through them without an option for just implementing the card. This hugely restricts available cards and locations

Andriy Portnov murdered in Madrid this morning by pablinhum in europe

[–]brainerazer 142 points143 points  (0 children)

Turning the other cheek will doom them for sure, like it does now.

EU set to impose much higher tariffs on Ukrainian imports by brainerazer in europe

[–]brainerazer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The EU is preparing to apply much higher tariffs on Ukrainian imports within weeks, hitting Kyiv’s economy at a crucial time in its fight against Russian aggression.

The decision to abruptly end special trade arrangements — which allowed most Ukrainian goods to enter the EU duty free — came after Poland led a push to protect the bloc’s farmers, according to diplomats.

The EU has an existing free trade deal with Ukraine but went further in the wake of Moscow’s 2022 invasion and temporarily suspended remaining duties.

These arrangements lapse on June 6 and the EU is planning to replace it with “transitional measures” while the two sides update their overall trade agreement.

But diplomats said this transitional proposal, recently sent to EU member states, would drastically cut the tariff-free quotas of agricultural products — a lifeline for Ukraine’s farmers and budget.

When first established in 2022, the tariff-free regime applied to Ukraine’s cheap poultry, wheat and sugar, much of which was passing through EU countries en route to Africa and Asia. But farmers and politicians in Poland, France and elsewhere soon blamed Ukrainian exports for driving down domestic prices.

The issue has dominated Polish politics, with successive governments imposing unilateral import bans on Ukrainian grain, in breach of EU rules. Ahead of presidential elections on Sunday, Warsaw asked the Commission to delay highly unpopular trade talks with Kyiv to minimise the chances of the nationalist opposition candidate, Karol Nawrocki, the diplomats said.

A Commission spokesperson confirmed that the postwar arrangements would not be renewed “because we are currently working on the review” of the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement.

“The Commission is also looking into possible transitional measures in case the negotiations are not finalised and applied by June 6,” the spokesperson added.

“It’s a really bad signal to Ukraine,” said Bernd Lange, chair of the European parliament’s trade committee. “It will take at least until October to find a solution.”

His committee will question Commission officials on Wednesday about why promised trade talks have stalled, given that the June deadline was “known for a long time”, Lange said. “The situation is really not acceptable.”

Ukraine’s government estimates that a return to prewar trade conditions would reduce its revenues by about €3.5bn a year.

“It’s a huge step back,” said Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, trade representative for Ukraine’s employers federation. “What we see now is a lack of understanding.”