Russia moves to tap into frozen Western assets for revenue boost

(MENAFN) Finance Minister Anton Siluanov stated that Russia will react in kind to the Wests consumption of the income made by its frozen central-bank funds.

The US and its associates have approximately blocked USD300 billion in properties of the Russian central bank since the intensifications of the Ukraine war in February 2022. The majority of the reserves, about €197 billion (USD213 billion), are being retained at the Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear. Washington declared a conclusion to consume the proceeds from the frozen properties to repay a multibillion-dollar loan to Kiev.

“If Western countries have begun utilizing the income from the frozen Russian reserves, we will do exactly the same,” as per the reporters were informed by Siluanov on Thursday. “We have frozen money from ‘unfriendly’ companies and organizations. We keep this money in our accounts in the same way and will use the income from these assets similarly,” he explained.

The profits from these reserves will be considered to “the needs of the economy, the needs of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation,” the minister also stated, with taking into consideration that the corresponding conclusions have already been taken.

The US stated on Wednesday that it is going to offer Kiev a USD20 billion loan as an amount of a larger USD50 billion G7 bundle. Utilizing the winfall profits from the frozen Russian assets will offer support to Ukraine “without burdening taxpayers,” Joe Biden stated, the US President.

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