An ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Europe on Tuesday that Russia has already drafted legislation to retaliate if nearly $300 billion of Russian assets were seized by the West and used to help Ukraine.
After President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, blocking around $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.
Top officials in the United States want to seize the assets to help support Ukraine, though some bankers and European officials are worried that simply taking the assets would create a dangerous precedent.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Saturday including a bill with a provision that would allow the confiscation of Russian sovereign assets, though the lion’s share of the assets are in Europe.
Like establishing an economic collaborative consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa that are all in talks to increase trade with each other, and ditch the dollar as their trade currency?
Like attempting to undermine the petrodollar as the world reserve currency for purchasing oil?
I don’t know what counters the west has in their bag, but it’s a little silly to make threats as if BRICS hasn’t been completely transparent about their plans the whole time.
It’s kind of an empty threat if you’ve been openly working on it for decades while the (more powerful) nations you plan to ratfuck have had time to prepare. I also don’t know how China would manage with a loss or rapid decrease in trade. They seem a bit too pragmatic than to follow Russia into a hole.
I’m sure they’d have to target all western accounts at once. Targeting one type will lead to the rest quickly hemorrhaging their money out of country.
And I don’t think they’d wind up attracting new western investment for decades if they pulled a move like that.