The West could lose at least $288 billion if they decide to confiscate frozen Russian assets to support rebuilding Ukraine, and then Moscow retaliated, according to Russia's state-owned news agency RIA.
West Wants to Confiscate Frozen Russian Assets
Following Russia's military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US and its allies imposed sanctions, restricting transactions with Russia's central bank and finance ministry. This move effectively blocked approximately $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in Western countries.
Reuters reported that US and British officials have initiated efforts in recent months to confiscate Russian assets immobilized in Belgium and other cities in Europe to help rebuild Ukraine.
However, such actions have faced resistance, with Russia accusing the West, particularly the US, of intimidating European nations, where most of the Russian assets are, into adopting similar measures.
Moscow has said that Russia has a list of US, European, and other assets that would be seized if Western countries push ahead.
Data From Russia's News Agency RIA
RIA cited data that showed that direct investment by the European Union, the G7 nations, Switzerland, and Australia in Russia's economy totaled $288 billion at the end of 2022.
It noted that in the EU, which held $223.3 billion of the assets, nations like Cyprus, Germany, and the Netherlands had significant portions of these assets.
Cyprus held $98.3 billion, the Netherlands had $50.1 billion, and Germany had $17.3 billion. Also among the top five European investors in the Russian economy are France and Italy, with assets and investments worth $16.6 billion and $12.9 billion, respectively.
In the G7 countries, the UK is one of the largest investors. Data at the end of 2021 showed that British assets in Russia were worth around $18.9 billion. It noted that the US, Japan, and Canada held Russian assets at the end of 2022 valued at $9.6 billion, $4.6 billion, and $2.9 billion, respectively.
RIA said Switzerland and Norway, which often sign up to anti-Russian measures, had $28.5 billion and $139 million in Russian assets in late 2022, respectively. On the other hand, Australia had $683 million invested at the end of 2023. Reuters said it could not verify the data cited by RIA.
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