Stalin was eager to bribe the Allies with the prospect of German loot and wanted the British to take more. He offered Churchill “shares in German undertakings.” Churchill did not nibble. He did not object, however, to the Soviets taking German equipment. “By removing factories and equipment from Germany, Russia would be doing us a service, for it would put an end to German exports which could then be replaced by British exports,” he said. Stalin said that the Soviets would happily remove German factories once they got hold of them.

—Serhii Plokhy, Yalta, (London: Penguin, 2010), 257.