NYT: West will not be able to confiscate Russian assets

Confiscation of Russian assets in the United States and Europe could result in problems for the global economy, the journalist said The New York Times Patricia Cohen.

Cohen noted that the confiscation of foreign assets could set a dangerous precedent. Therefore, the West will not take this step, despite the insistent statements of “a handful of Eastern European states and the Baltic states” about the need to transfer Russian assets to Kyiv, the observer notes.

“The seizure of Russian accounts could undermine confidence in the dollar, the most widely used currency for global trade and transactions. Foreign governments may be reluctant to keep money in US banks or make investments for fear of being confiscated.”she clarified.

The confiscation move could also hit US assets, which, while in other jurisdictions, are at higher risk of future expropriation in the event of an international dispute.

Also, the confiscation of Russian assets will undermine faith in the system of international laws and agreements, Cohen concluded.

Earlier in Britain, they said that the confiscation of the frozen assets of Russia is not an easy task due to the lack of such a practice in the past.

After the start of a special operation to protect the Donbass, Western countries imposed tough anti-Russian sanctions. In particular, they froze about half of Moscow’s foreign exchange reserves – approximately $300 billion of assets of the Central Bank of Russia and up to 20 billion of European assets of entrepreneurs from the Russian Federation.

At the same time, according to European media, the European Commission has no idea where 200 of the 300 billion dollars of Russia’s frozen assets are located.