The West freezes Russian gold and currency assets worth hundreds of billions

Frozen Russian assets: The greatest theft in history

Alexander Venediktov, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, commented on the recent move of the Wester countries to freeze Russia's assets.

"Let's call a spade a spade: the move to freeze Russian assets is one of the greatest thefts in history," he said.

According to the Deputy Secretary of the Security Council, this crime was organised by those who previously assumed responsibility for maintaining the world economic architecture.

"It's like asking a fox to protect a chicken house," Alexander Venediktov, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council said.

Earlier, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Western countries had frozen about a half of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves.

"We have a total of about $640 billion of reserves, of which about 300 billion are now in a state in which we cannot use them,” he explained.

Earlier, the US Treasury reported that Russian assets were blocked in 100 days. The lion's share of the assets (300 billion dollars) account for the assets of the Central Bank of Russia. The rest belong to individuals and companies.

The US agency noted that the international group of specialists was still tracking the sanctioned Russian assets. The work is group called Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO). It includes representatives from Australia, the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Japan and the European Commission.

The US Department of Justice set out a hope that Congress would approve the idea to use all the assets seized from Russia and Russian entrepreneurs for the benefit of Ukraine. Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General of the United States, said that the US authorities intend to get to these assets, regardless of their form.

Monaco said the US authorities are "seeking to get to these assets, whether they are in the form of luxury yachts, bank accounts, other goods, aircraft or whatever.” According to her, "nothing is ruled out.

The proceeds will be directed for the benefit of the Ukrainian people, concluded Monaco. According to her, the process to transfer the confiscated assets will not take years.

On April 27, the US House of Representatives passed a law providing an opportunity to use the arrested Russian assets to support Ukraine. Congressmen approved the confiscation of foreigners' assets if the assets had been received either through illegal actions or with the support of the leadership of the Russian Federation. At the same time, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that the American side did not yet know whether the frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank could be used to help Kyiv.

The UK found a way to use the arrested mansions of Russian oligarchs. They wanted to accommodate Ukrainian refugees there.

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Author`s name Editorial Team
Editor Dmitry Sudakov
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