According to press reports, Russia is offering to exchange the assets of Western investors frozen in the country for part of the Russian assets frozen by the West.
According to the Financial Times, at the suggestion of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Moscow will allow interested Western investors to “buy” frozen Russian assets in the West with funds tied up in Vladimir Putin’s country.
In this way, the Russians want to release about $1.1 billion, which largely belongs to small investors and has been invested by Russian holdings in the West. According to Siluanov, the remaining details will be determined by the relevant decree, which Putin is expected to sign shortly.
Russia’s central bank says this exchange will be “voluntary” and there will be no forced expropriation of Western assets in Russia.
Citing a source familiar with the details of the Russian proposal, “FT” emphasizes that any potential transaction will be complicated due to the legal issues facing Western investors related to the sale of their assets in Russia.
Sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine. Russia wants to seize the assets of the West
There are no negotiations between the EU and Russia over a possible exchange of financial assets, four senior European officials told the Financial Times. One added that he saw no chance of detailed talks on such a proposal in the near future.
The publication expressed doubt that Western governments would agree to a deal that would equate Russian assets frozen in response to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine with Western assets in Russia, the seizure of which they consider illegal.
‘FT’ estimates that the sanctions imposed on Euroclear, the world’s largest clearing company, have frozen Russian assets worth nearly EUR 200 billion, of which EUR 180 billion are reserves of the Russian central bank.
Western officials are exploring ways to legally extract the profits from these assets and pass them on to Ukraine as financial aid.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
