Will hit back if foreign assets seized: Russian Minister Siluanov

By Bloomberg News

Russia will give a “symmetrical” response to any actions by the US and its allies that target its frozen assets abroad, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
 

“We also have no fewer frozen” assets than the West holds, Siluanov said in an interview with the state-run RIA Novosti news service published Monday. He didn’t specify which Western assets he meant, though RIA reported his answer was in response to a question on Russia’s frozen foreign reserves. 

Sweeping international sanctions, imposed after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, blocked an array of assets abroad including about $300 billion owned by the Bank of Russia. A campaign by politicians and activists to take those assets and send the proceeds to Kyiv is gaining momentum. 

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Group of Seven nations should be “bolder” in seizing frozen Russian assets, in an article published Sunday. French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a meeting in Paris on Monday to discuss support for Ukraine, at which the subject of asset seizures could be raised

Russia blocked funds held by non-residents from countries it considered “unfriendly” in special C accounts after the war began. Those accounts contained more than 280 billion rubles ($3 billion) as of the beginning of November 2022, the Interfax news service reported, citing the Bank of Russia. 

The central bank hasn’t disclosed the amount of frozen assets since then, though Interfax reported last June that the total had risen to nearly 600 billion rubles by the end of 2022, citing sources it didn’t identify. Central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said in February that funds have gradually accumulated in C accounts, mainly through payments of dividends, coupons, and the debt on bonds.

According to Siluanov, other countries are drawing their own conclusions from the freezing of Russian assets. 

“The Chinese are reducing their participation in American securities — this is a consequence of what is happening,” he said. “The reliability of the dollar and euro has been undermined.”