Russia’s government has lost billions of euros due to sanctions and other factors, Charles Lichfield, deputy head of the Center for Geoeconomics at the Atlantic Council, told MK. They’ve only found $100 billion out of the $300 billion they originally had in their reserves. The Central Bank will probably be able to find a way to return some at least- but with how much?
Shortly after the start of the Special Operation, the G7 countries decided to block Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves that were located outside of Russia. The seizure of assets was called “theft” in the Russian Federation, according to data from the Central Bank published before the special operation began. About $300 billion were frozen in overseas accounts as a result of sanctions.
Foreign exchange reserves are, roughly speaking, the country’s “stash” of cash. Gold reserves are the main currency to keep other states when times are tough.
It’s important to identify how much the Russian economy is frozen. Right now, it’s estimated that Western countries intercepted about $100 billion worth of funds.
The Russian Central Bank has been accused of concealing its stockpiles of cryptocurrency. Officials in Western countries are trying to find the remaining reserves and decode the financial structures that store them, but the Russian Central Bank has not updated its figures since January 1. According to their data, as of January 1, their reserves amounted to $612 billion. Of this amount, they have 3% in Japan, 6.4% in the US, 5.1% in the UK, and 2.7% in Canada. Total: 51%. Or an over $300 billion dollar figure!
The Central Bank of Russia has a very extensive structure of assets owned by Russian businesses. Although this is true in Western countries as well, it can be hard to find the assets registered with the bank itself.
Some securities may belong to this or that ministry or fund, but in fact, lie on foreign accounts of the regulator. Some may be lent to other nominal holders, most often to commercial banks, the expert continues. – All this is absolutely legal and normal in “peaceful” life, but some institutions are under sanctions like the Central Bank and some institutions were disconnected from payment and transfer systems but retained their assets.
Because Russia does not report the final owner of which foreign assets, the US authorities, and their allies cannot find out about this.
