Russia amassed about US$80 billion in foreign assets under sanctions over year

Russia has managed to accumulate about a third of its revenues from the sale of raw materials outside the country during the year of the full-scale war. This could be one of the targets for new Western sanctions.

Source: Bloomberg; European Pravda

Details: Bloomberg’s economic analysts suggest that these funds, totalling about US$80 billion, are scattered across holdings of cash, property and investments in affiliates abroad. This shadow reserve presumably helps the Kremlin sustain its finances under sanctions.

Maria Shagina, an economist at the UK-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, has stated that Europe did not immediately impose sanctions against Russia's energy sector, and the Kremlin managed to accumulate one of the largest current account surpluses in recent history, which effectively offset the effect of the Central Bank's asset freeze.

In amassing international assets last year, Russia gained a surplus equivalent to around 5% of the gross domestic product.

Such assets could potentially become the next target of sanctions, especially if they are directly linked to the state, and in Russia, a significant share of many large commodity-exporting companies is state-owned. However, even if Western countries are able to identify the owner of such assets and prove a connection for sanctions, the share of recovered assets will likely be less than these estimates.

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