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| Russia threatens to retaliate if the West seizes assets. (Source: Reuters) |
About $300 billion of Russian assets are "frozen" in the West, as the US and its allies have imposed a ban on transactions with the Russian Central Bank and Ministry of Finance , after Moscow launched a special military operation in Kiev in February 2022.
In order to help rebuild Ukraine, US and British officials have in recent months worked to launch an effort to seize Russian assets that are sitting idle in Belgium and other European cities.
They hope G7 leaders will agree to issue a stronger statement when they meet in late February 2024, on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Kremlin also warned of "symmetrical retaliation", claiming to have a list of US, European and other assets that would be seized in retaliation if the West moves to seize Russian assets.
Russia's Ria Novosti news agency cited collected data showing that direct investment from the European Union (EU), G7 countries, Australia and Switzerland in the Russian economy amounted to $288 billion by the end of 2022.
Accordingly, EU member states own assets worth 223.3 billion USD, specifically, 98.3 billion USD officially belongs to the Republic of Cyprus, 50.1 billion USD belongs to the Netherlands, 17.3 billion USD belongs to Germany, 16.6 billion USD belongs to France and 12.9 billion USD belongs to Italy.
Among the G7 countries, Britain is also one of the largest investors, with total assets in Russia worth about $18.9 billion as of the end of 2021.
The US had assets in Russia worth $9.6 billion at the end of 2022, Japan - $4.6 billion and Canada - $2.9 billion.
In addition, according to Ria Novosti, Switzerland and Norway - countries that often apply anti-Russian measures - owned 28.5 billion USD and 139 million USD respectively at the end of 2022, while data shows that Australia had invested 683 million USD at the end of 2023.
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