Russia’s state news agency (RIA) said on Sunday it calculated the West would lose assets and investments worth at least US$288 billion if it seized frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, the United States (US) and its allies banned transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, freezing about $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.
U.S. and British officials have worked in recent months to speed up efforts to confiscate Russian assets immobilized in Belgium and other European cities to help rebuild Ukraine.
RIA cited data that said direct investments by the European Union (EU), G7 countries, Australia and Switzerland into the Russian economy at the end of 2022 totaled $288 billion.
They also state that EU countries have invested 223.3 billion dollars, of which 98.3 billion dollars are formally held by Cyprus, 50.1 billion dollars by the Netherlands and 17.3 billion dollars by Germany.
It is stated that the five largest European investors in the Russian economy also include France with assets and investments worth 16.6 billion dollars and Italy with 12.9 billion dollars.
Among the G7 countries, Britain is listed as one of the biggest investors, citing data from the end of 2021 showing British assets in Russia worth around $18.9 billion.
In the documents referred to by the Russian agency, it is stated that the U.S. invested 9.6 billion dollars in Russia at the end of 2022, Japan 4.6 billion dollars and Canada 2.9 billion.
Switzerland and Norway, which the RIA says have typically signed anti-Russian measures, had $28.5 billion and $139 million worth of assets in Russia at the end of 2022, while data showed Australia invested $683 million at the end of last year, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
