Top executives at strategic Belgian financial services firm Euroclear, which holds €193bn in Russian assets, previously had French bodyguards.
Andrew Rettman
Russia’s frozen EU assets are to be guarded by a small Belgian private security firm in future, amid their ongoing strategic value in the Ukraine war.
The Belgian financial services giant Euroclear, which holds €193bn in Russian central bank assets frozen under EU sanctions, had previously hired French firm Amarante to provide bodyguards for its CEO Valérie Urbain — and most of its executive board — in the light of Russian threats.
Amarante is the world’s 10th largest in the sector, also provided bodyguards for overseas EU embassies, and has a turnover of €700m a year.
But a senior source at the flagship French company told EUobserver it would be leaving Euroclear at the end of May, in favour of boutique Belgian private-security firm Mentor Worldwide Security (MWSS).
The decision had been made on financial grounds and Amarante was awaiting legal formalities, the source said.
“Euroclear’s position [in negotiations] was very tough … they pushed for discount after discount,” he said.
MWSS CEO Ricardo Coenen said: “I can neither deny or confirm [the information],” when reached by phone on Tuesday (14 April).
Euroclear declined to comment on the record.
Amarante had been paid some €1m a month by Euroclear, the Amarante insider said.
Belgian veto
Euroclear was at the centre of an EU crisis of geopolitical proportions last December, when Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever dramatically vetoed EU calls to unfreeze the €193bn to fund Kyiv.
But aside from just holding the Russian assets, Euroclear also skims off their “windfall profits”, which the EU channels to Ukraine for arms purchases.
And the EU funelled €1.4bn of “windfall” money to Kyiv on 1 April to help avert a financial crisis, showing how Euroclear posed an ongoing strategic threat to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s interests.
Euroclear first hired Amarante amid Russian threats against Urbain shortly after she became CEO in May 2024.
But the decision to change bodyguards had nothing to do with Russia security concerns, the Amarante source said.
A French banker with close ties to Russia who worked inside Euroclear had threatened Urbain, according to an investigation by EUobserver, Belgian magazine Humo, Belgian newspaper De Morgen, and the British-based NGO Dossier Center.
But French private intelligence firm Axis&Co told EUobserver that this was not true and that the allegations against him had arisen due to a private “vendetta” inside Euroclear.
“His independent thinking [on Russia] and occasional critical remarks may have unsettled some [Euroclear] executives, leading to the fabrication of this narrative of the Russian spy,” said Axis&Co in a document sent to EUobserver.
“We are working pro bono to help Niels Huby [Olivier Huby’s son], who is one of our long-standing collaborators,” said Axis&Co partner Mélanie Delattre.
Huby also denied the allegations in an article in French magazine L’Express on 17 March.
