The Security Council called the freezing of Russia's assets "the greatest theft in history"

The freezing of Russian assets is one of the greatest thefts in history, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Venediktov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“Let's call a spade a spade: the freezing of Russian assets is one of the greatest thefts in history. And the paradox is that the organizers of this crime are the same people who previously assumed responsibility for maintaining the world economic architecture. It's like putting a fox in charge of a chicken coop," he said.

According to him, all this leads to the self-destruction of the Bretton Woods system (the international system for organizing monetary relations and trade settlements, which in 1944 replaced the financial system based on the "gold standard"). “This trend cannot be denied. Today, the paramount task of the entire world community is to make sure that this collapse passes with minimal losses, and does not lead to a new world war, ”said the deputy secretary of the Security Council.

The day before, on June 29, the US Treasury Department reported on the blocking of assets of the Russian Central Bank for about $ 300 billion, as well as other assets related to RUSSIA in the amount of more than $ 30 billion. The Working Group on Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO), which includes representatives of various Western countries.

According to the Central Bank, as of April 1, 2022, the volume of Russia's international reserves amounted to $606.5 billion. The Ministry of Finance previously confirmed that after the start of the Russian special operation, Western countries froze about half of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves. At the same time, assets in Chinese yuan, monetary gold stored in Russia (as of February 1, about $132 billion), cash reserves and special drawing rights (SDR, about $24 billion) in the IMF remain legally inaccessible to sanctions.

The HEAD of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said on April 19 that the Russian side would challenge the freezing of gold and foreign exchange reserves and was already preparing lawsuits. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western countries of actually stealing Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves. “When, after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, our Western “friends” stole more than $300 billion from us, in fact they stole what they themselves paid for gas. In other words, they have been using our gas for free all these years,” the minister stressed.