Losing $300Bln in Frozen Assets Is a Price Worth Paying to Break Western Grip on Global Finance, Putin Says
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Losing $300Bln in Frozen Assets Is a Price Worth Paying to Break Western Grip on Global Finance, Putin Says
Vladimir Putin says Russia is ready to part with its $300 billion in frozen assets in the West. He says doing so would help accelerate the shift away from Western-dominated financial systems. Putin spoke at a Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) summit in Minsk.
Western countries froze roughly $300 billion in Russian central bank assets — mostly in Europe — after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The EU plans to use interest earned on those assets to fund Ukraine’s defense, a move the Kremlin has condemned as theft.
“A significant amount of Russian gold and currency assets is frozen in Western banks. They keep telling us they intend to steal our money,” Putin said at a Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) summit in Minsk.
He said Western appropriation of the funds would trigger an “irreversible trend toward the regionalization of payment systems,” which he claimed would ultimately work to the benefit of the global economy.
“I think it is probably worth paying for,” Putin said, adding that Moscow would continue efforts to strengthen its own financial settlement systems in cooperation with “friendly states.”