Russian assets blocked due to sanctions were valued at $280 billion

About $280 billion of Russian assets are blocked around the world, most of them are in the EU , the US Treasury reported . In 2022, the total value of Russia's frozen assets was estimated at $330 billion. Moscow considers this illegal

The total value of frozen Russian assets abroad is estimated at approximately $280 billion, most of which is located in the European Union, according to the US Treasury Department's announcement of a meeting of the Working Group on Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO). The meeting was attended by group members from Australia, CANADA, the European Commission, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the UK and the usa.

“REPO has completed its initial efforts to map and account for Russian sovereign assets that are immobilized and held in REPO participating jurisdictions. <...> The total value of assets involved in this comparison is estimated at approximately $280 billion, most of which are located in the European Union,” the publication says.

Members of the association pledged to take steps to ensure that Russian sovereign assets located in their jurisdictions remain blocked until Moscow “pays for the damage it caused to Ukraine.”

In addition, they will take steps to fully match all frozen assets. REPO expects this to happen before the end of the year.

After the start of the Russian special operation, Western countries blocked both the assets of the country’s government agencies and private individuals who were under sanctions. In June last year, the US Treasury estimated the value of frozen assets worldwide at approximately $330 billion, of which about $300 billion are the assets of the Central Bank. According to the HEAD of the Russian Ministry of Finance, Anton Siluanov, RUSSIA has lost access to half of its gold and foreign exchange reserves.

The EU reported in July of this year that the union managed to freeze Russian assets worth €207 billion, including the assets of the Central Bank. More than €24.1 billion of blocked assets belong to sanctioned Russians and companies. In the same month, the United States announced that since the beginning of hostilities, the assets of Russian businessmen had been blocked for $500 million.

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There have been repeated calls in the West and in Kyiv to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine. In June , BLOOMBERG reported that the EU did not see a “credible legal path” that would allow them to be confiscated simply on the grounds that they are subject to sanctions. Instead, Brussels is considering two options for using the funds: transferring reinvestment proceeds to Ukraine's reconstruction, and a “contingency contribution” (which implies that companies that made large profits from blocked Russian assets would have to transfer a significant amount to the EU).

On September 6, the agency wrote that the European Commission is going to propose a plan that will allow the legal transfer of income from blocked assets of the Central Bank to the budgets of EU countries. The windfall is expected to be around €3 billion. More than half of the assets are cash and deposits, the rest are securities that will be converted into cash as they mature over the next two to three years.

At the same time, according to Bloomberg, a possible tax and confiscation of excess profits raises both legal and financial questions for EU member countries. Some are concerned that if such a tax is introduced, investors may abandon the euro.

Moscow considers the blocking of assets illegal. The Kremlin stated that they would consider their seizure in favor of Ukraine “in fact, outright theft.” President Vladimir Putin warned that such a policy “never brought anyone any good.” Press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov reported that legal proceedings regarding blocked funds are already underway and some Russian entrepreneurs have already achieved success in different countries.