Russia’s response to an attempt to seize its assets could frighten the West

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov responded to German Prosecutor General Peter Frank, who demanded that the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main confiscate frozen Russian funds worth 720 million euros. He warned that if such a decision is made, then our country will act symmetrically and will pay attention to the money of non-residents frozen in domestic accounts, and the amounts there are “rather large.” Despite the asymmetry of the funds of foreign investors in Russian accounts, Russia has something to respond to the outright theft of “former partners,” experts said.

Alexander Kazus, partner of the law firm “Sonichev, Kazus and Partners”:

“The norms of international law do not prohibit, in order to comply with the principle of international equality, the adoption of mirror legal acts that directly or indirectly affect the rights and legitimate interests of citizens of those countries in response to whose actions these mirror acts were adopted.

Consequently, if Europe, in a state of economic crisis, having lost its financial independence and controlled by the United States, takes extreme measures and confiscates frozen Russian assets, nothing prevents Russia from taking retaliatory measures. In this case, our country will not be considered an aggressor, but will only be a party forced to respond “like for like.”

Unfortunately, the state of frozen Russian assets in foreign deposits turned out to be significantly greater than the amount of funds of non-residents in “C” accounts (according to various sources, this is about 1 trillion rubles).

Direct instruments for prohibiting the confiscation of Russian assets by European countries have not been established in international law, however, a self-sufficient and resource-rich Russia can use other levers of influence, the cost of which can also be sharply increased as a response (to compensate for the losses we have suffered).

With a high degree of probability, the authorities of Europe (including Germany), brought to a critical point of economic recession, will in the near future decide to confiscate Russian assets.”

Denis Perepelitsa, director of the Federal Methodological Center for Financial Literacy:

“From Class C accounts, Russia will be able to confiscate about 280 billion rubles if retaliatory measures are introduced. International courts can help defend Russian property, but the likelihood of a positive resolution of this issue is small, given the political situation in Europe, where the judiciary is predominantly located. In principle, the European authorities have already made a decision on the confiscation of Russian assets; the question now is only in the legal formalization of this decision.”

Andrey Loboda, economist, director of communications at BitRiver:

“Russia is already responding in a mirror way to unfriendly actions. Financial authorities froze the payment of dividends to Western shareholders owning Russian shares. In general, the exchange of pleasantries could reach $300 billion, which is exactly the amount of Russian money, according to Western media estimates, that the financial authorities of Western countries managed to freeze.

Russia has something to answer, but the withdrawal of capital to the West continues: business from unfriendly countries leaves Russian jurisdiction at a huge discount; Russia acts strictly within the legal framework and does not infringe on the interests of those who want to leave it. There are only a few of these left.

Lawyers in the West cannot justify the misappropriation of Russian money. There is no legal basis for this. At the same time, the effect of information pressure on Moscow has already been achieved, making Russia toxic as a major participant in the global financial market. Taking other people’s money is a favorite hobby in the West. Recent scandals involving the misappropriation of Venezuelan gold reserves have not yet subsided; the implementation of a negative scenario against Russia is very likely.”

Alexey Gavrishev, managing partner of AVG Legal:

“Whether the mutually confiscated amounts are proportional or not depends on the exchange rates of currencies and securities at the time of seizure, as well as other factors affecting capitalization. It is far from certain that the amounts will coincide.

The resources for Russia to defend its interests can be absolutely any – negotiations, legal, economic. There are always resources, it is important how and which of them will be used. As for legal resources, Western courts are quite open to appeals from Russia (those that will make such decisions), as are their superiors. Besides these, there is also the International Court of Justice for such disputes.

I think most countries will not dare to take away Russian assets so openly. The de jure guarantees of property rights are too strong: under such decisions, the parliaments of these countries would have to adopt separate laws or make changes to existing ones.”