How Russia retaliated against the West's use of frozen assets to finance Ukraine

Russia's Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov said Moscow had the means to respond to the West's use of frozen Russian sovereign assets to finance Ukraine. This was a "last resort" measure but because it was "theft".

“If Western countries start using income from frozen Russian assets, we will do exactly that,” Russian Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov said at the 2024 IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings. (Source: ifc.org)

“We are convinced that this is indeed a theft of our assets, but ... for our part, we have domestic tools and internal decisions that allow us to take countermeasures. I cannot say that we like it, it is just a last resort,” Chebeskov said in an interview with Sputnik on the sidelines of the 2024 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) in Washington.

“If Western countries start using the income from Russia’s frozen reserves, we will do exactly the same,” Siluanov told reporters on October 24. “We have frozen money from ‘unfriendly’ companies and organizations. We keep this money in our accounts in the same way and will use the income from these assets in the same way.”

Income from these funds will be allocated to "the needs of the economy, the needs of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation" - the Russian Finance Minister added, noting that corresponding decisions have already been made.

On October 23, the US announced that Washington would provide Kiev with a $20 billion loan as part of a $50 billion aid package from the Group of Seven. And using profits from frozen Russian assets would support Ukraine without burdening US taxpayers. A day earlier, the European Parliament also backed allocating up to 35 billion euros ($38 billion) in loans to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets as collateral to repay the debt.

* Speaking on the sidelines of this annual conference on October 25, Mr. Ivan Chebeskov frankly stated that the US is using the USD as a weapon, which has forced many countries to seek alternative solutions.

“The US dollar is now dominant as a currency for transactions and as a reserve currency for savings. They (the US) took advantage of this and started using the dollar, essentially, as a weapon. They seized it, froze its reserves, banned transactions and imposed sanctions on banks,” Mr. Chebeskov commented.

Russia's Deputy Finance Minister warned that this policy will have long-term consequences.

The Russian official also said it was “impossible to use a baton to force people” to use its currency and financial system and immediately hit those who refused to do so.

According to Deputy Minister Ivan Chebeskov, many countries are thinking about finding alternatives to the US dollar. And when such solutions appear, they will actively use them “because no one knows when the baton will hit them hard on the head."

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/cach-nga-tra-dua-viec-phuong-tay-su-dung-tai-san-bi-phong-toa-tai-tro-ukraine-291423.html