France and Finland consider sending troops to Ukraine.

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today. Is Mario Ecunomo, a good friend, a European banker, an American banker, and he has a lot of concerns of what’s going on in Europe, and he usually give us the American people an update of what’s going on in Europe. Mario, what concerns you this week?

0:20 Speaker 2 Yes, good morning, Cats, roundtable. So let’s quickly go through some important developments in Europe. They’ve had a two day meeting the European Union in Brussels, and at this meeting they’re discussing the possibility of issuing a euro bond raising money basically so that they can provide funding to Ukraine to be able to buy additional weapons and arms. There

0:43 are some countries that are supporting it and some or not. Basically it falls along the same lines as most things do. The EU North, which is Germany and the Netherlands Holland they’re basically saying no, they don’t want to do this, where you South is saying yes. And this all was very similar to another proposal that they’re putting forward, which

1:02 is to basically seize the income off of the Russian assets that have been sanctioned that they’re being held in European banks. Once again in this situation, Germany is saying no, and the ECB is also saying that they need to exercise tremendous caution. The idea being that if they can do this to Russia, they can then do this to

1:22 just about anybody, and therefore people will be reluctant to trade and to have Euros and to actually keep their money in the European banks and another station quickly.

1:35 Speaker 1 Tell me how do you feel about that? What is the right decision?

1:41 Speaker 2 So my personal opinion on the matter is I don’t think it’s legal. I don’t think you can do that. I don’t think you have the right to. Actually, you see, when you sanction a country or a person, the idea is that once they conform to whatever it is the reason you’re sanctioning them for, then you should be able

1:57 to return back the asset to them. If they don’t conform, then you can keep holding onto it. But I’m not sure legally you’re able to see someone’s assets or the income generated off of those assets, just because you’ve decided to do so. So. Russia has responded as well and said that if in fact Europe does do this, they

2:15 will challenge Europe legally on the matter, and they believe that once again, this will actually hurt Europe more than it will Russia, just like everything else has thus far, because people will be reluctant to actually trade in euros, hold euros, and to actually do banking in the European Union.

2:33 Speaker 1 I agree with that. I agree with that one hundred percent. Once you start a pot like that and you arbitrarily there’s no trial, do you arbitrarily sanction another country? None other country is going to get even with you someday.

2:51 Speaker 2 Yes, Yes, it’s a complicated thing. I’m not sure they’re going to be able to pull it through because once again Germany and the European Central Bank are against this. They’re ultimately the ones they’re gonna in my opinion, hold sway on the matter. There are two other things I’d like to touch on. Finland is alarmed apparently, and it’s

3:09 raising a lot of concern about an army being sent to Ukraine. They’re pointing out that they did join NATO, but the reason they joined NATO was for protection purposes, not to actually engage in any type of an offensive maneuver which would actually endanger their country even more and I think they have legitimate rights to be concerned, because

3:33 that’s not the basis upon which they were sold on the whole NATO concept.

3:38 Speaker 1 Yeah, but both ways, you want to be protected, but you also have to protect the other countries.

3:46 Speaker 2 That’s true. But their point is up until now, no NATO country has been attacked, so therefore they’re reluctant to actually engage the Russians in Ukraine because Ukraine is not a NATO member country. Again, I think legally they’re on solid ground. Let’s touch on one other thing as well.

4:04 The former French foreign minister, mister de Ville Penn had an interesting interview one we’re in. He raised five points why France should reconsider and not send troops to Ukraine. I won’t get into the all five, but I will get into one which I found very very interesting, and that was he specifically said, how do we know that

4:28 if we send troops to Ukraine, NATO, France, the West America, how do we know that, in fact, the Russians are not going to actually have troops come from other countries to help them. And he pointed out the Middle East, he pointed out China, he pointed out other countries far away, and he’s right. The reality is we don’t know. We

4:51 don’t know who’s going to actually go to help the Russians. Maybe nobody will, but what if countries do. So his point is, unless we’re sure about out what we’re getting into and who’s going to actually help the Russians, it’s foolish and pointless to charge off into the Ukraine and to believe that we can actually rely on only fighting

5:11 one enemy. In this case, the Russians understood. Ahead. You just point out one more thing which is very important. This has to do with the former chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, of the Polish Armed Forces. Sorry, he had an interview and in his interview recently several days ago, he actually said that Ukraine’s losses in its

5:34 confrontation with Russia should be counted in the millions, not the hundreds of thousands, And a quote that he put out said that I believe the Ukraine’s actual losses should be counted in the millions, not the hundreds of thousands.

5:49 There are no resources in that country, no one left to fight, he said. He said the Ukrainians are losing the war, and he’s described the situation as very very dramatic, So you have to keep in mind this is a man who’s on the border there, who has a very good idea about what’s going on, and if he’s coming

6:08 out and saying these things, I believe that everybody in the West, and especially in the European Union, especially the people who are trigger happy and want to go charging into the Ukraine, they need to actually sit down and listen to this guy who’s dedicated his life to the military and who has a much better idea than a

6:24 politician who’s sitting in Brussels or in any other European capital does about what the situation on the ground in the Ukraine is.

6:31 Speaker 1 Like Mario to Nomoo, thank you for the update and we’ll catch up with you again real soon. And thank you for informing the American people. Thank you so much.

6:44 Speaker 2 Thank you. Enjoy your day.