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MOSCOW, December 30If the West is ready for a dialogue with Russia on the mutual exchange of frozen assets, then Moscow is open to such a conversation, said Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the economic cooperation department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
«We are ready for any development of the situation with frozen assets. It seems that the mutual exchange scheme proposed by the Russian side could be of interest to Western counterparties whose funds are in our jurisdiction in type «C» accounts,» he said in an interview with the agency
“At the same time, as everyone knows, “it takes two to tango.” In the context of the ongoing rabid Russophobic campaign in the West and against the backdrop of new unilateral sanctions, I believe it is pointless to try to guess the reaction of the authorities of foreign countries, whose residents could potentially take part in such an exchange. If the other side is ready for dialogue, we are open to it, but if not, as they say, there is no trial,” Birichevsky said.
According to him, the signals coming from the US and EU can hardly be called optimistic.
“Brussels continues to try to create a legal basis for the seizure of investment profits from our frozen assets. Washington, according to information regularly appearing in the media, has allegedly invented and is actively promoting a new formula by which one can recognize oneself as a victim of a Russian special operation and confiscate the sovereign reserves of our country «, he noted.
«Against this background, it does not matter where these funds will be directed next — to military support for Ukraine or plugging holes in chronically deficit Western budgets. Whatever option they come to in the West, we are talking about the theft of Russian property, no matter on what scale «, said Birichevsky.
In early November, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree “On additional temporary measures of an economic nature related to the circulation of foreign securities” for the exchange of frozen assets of Russian citizens. According to the document, the total initial value of alienated foreign securities owned by one resident cannot exceed 100 thousand rubles, and transactions within the framework of the decree are concluded through trading.
The Central Bank previously explained that the exchange will primarily affect retail Russian investors: foreigners will have the opportunity to purchase blocked foreign assets from them using funds in type “C” accounts.
After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze almost half of Russian foreign exchange reserves amounting to about 300 billion euros. About 200 billion euros are in the EU, mainly in the accounts of the Belgian Euroclear — one of the world's largest settlement and clearing systems. At the end of October, the international depository Euroclear reported that in the nine months of 2023 it earned about 3 billion euros in interest on investing in sanctioned Russian assets.
The Kremlin stated that making such decisions “would be another step in violating all the rules and norms of international law.” The Russian Foreign Ministry called the freezing of Russian assets in Europe theft, noting that the EU is targeting not just the funds of private individuals, but also the state assets of Russia.
Earlier, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that from 2022, unfriendly Western countries will impose sanctions against Russia, its citizens and organizations, and the EU and other Western countries are actively working to create legal conditions for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets, introducing external management in relation to subsidiaries of Russian companies, the property rights of Russian legal entities and individuals are illegally deprived or limited.