Russia believes it has “lost” $300 billion in assets frozen due to sanctions, an independent Russian news outlet has reported, as a lengthy legal fight looms over the money the Biden administration reportedly wants to seize to rebuild Ukraine.
However, a market analyst has told Newsweek that such a confiscation of Russian assets could mean that economies in the West will “suffer more losses than gains.”
Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine saw sanctions aimed at isolating Moscow from the global financial system and choke its revenue to wage war. The U.S. and its allies prohibit transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, amounting to around $300 billion of assets in the West in major currencies, gold and government bonds.
Bloomberg reported that the White House had shifted its position to back legislation before Congress that would allow, but not oblige, President Joe Biden to confiscate frozen Russian assets on U.S. territory.