📆 ANNOUNCEMENT: On June 27, at 11:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host a discussion on the confiscation of Russian assets abroad.

In April 2024, both houses of the US Congress passed The 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act, which allows the executive branch to seize Russian assets worth $4-5 billion. The total amount of frozen Russian sovereign assets across jurisdictions that have imposed sanctions is estimated to be $300 billion. Under the new law, Russian assets can only be unfrozen if the conflict in Ukraine ends and full compensation is made for Ukrainian material losses.

Russia did not hesitate to respond to the US bill. On 23 May 2024, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree “On a special procedure for compensating for damage caused to the Russian Federation and the Central Bank of Russia in connection with unfriendly actions by the United States.” According to the document, the Russian authorities may use both sovereign funds and funds from individuals to compensate for damages caused by the confiscation of Russian sovereign assets in the US.

❓How will the new powers of authorities in Russia and the United States affect bilateral relations?
❓To what extent are the assets in Russia and the US comparable?
❓What are the prospects for further mutual expansion of confiscation measures?
❓Which countries that have initiated anti-Russia sanctions can replicate the American experience?
❓And what might the consolidation of these economic barriers in production and trade result in?

Participants in this discussion will address these and other related questions.

Speakers:

🇷🇺 Dmitry Timofeev, Director of the Department for Control of External Restrictions of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation

🇨🇳 John Gong, Professor, Vice-President of Research and Strategy at the University of International Business and Economics – Israel; China Forum Expert

🇷🇺 Ekaterina Arapova, Director of the Center of Sanction Policy Expertise Institute for International Studies, Deputy Dean of the Department of International Relations, MGIMO University, Ph.D. in Economics

Moderator:

🗣 Ivan Timofeev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club

https://valdaiclub.com/events/announcements/valdai-club-to-discuss-confiscation-of-russian-assets-abroad/

Working languages: English, Russian.

ℹ️ Information for the media: Dear journalists, to be accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our website. If you have any questions about the event, call +79269307763.

Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VK, Telegram and Dzen. 

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #sanctions #RussianAssets

🎥 LIVE: at 11:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), we are starting a discussion on the confiscation of Russian assets abroad.

https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239197

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #sanctions #RussianAssets

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🗣 On June 27, 2024, the Valdai Discussion Club held a discussion on the confiscation of Russian assets abroad.

📷 Photo gallery

🎥 Video

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #sanctions #RussianAssets

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💸 In April 2024, the United States approved H. R. 8038, the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act, which provides for the possibility of confiscating Russia’s sovereign assets. It represents a serious precedent that entails a number of questions.

❓What does the decision mean for the global economy and the current financial system?
❓What are the prospects for replicating such solutions within the collective West?
❓How symmetrical is the Russian response, embodied in Presidential Decree No. 442, establishing a special procedure for compensation for damage caused to Russia by the United States?

The adopted decision contradicts not only the norms of international law, which is designed to guarantee the immunity of the sovereign property of states (and the official reserves of the country and the property of the Central Bank are precisely that), but also America’s own laws, particularly the US Foreign Immunity Act of 1976.

Legalising the possibility of confiscation of Russia’s sovereign assets, as well as denying Russian owners of frozen assets the right to apply to American courts for legal protection, will further exacerbate the crisis of confidence in Western jurisdictions, reserve currencies and the global financial system in its current configuration.

As practice shows, the implementation of legislatively formalised decisions on the confiscation of sovereign assets can be difficult due to the lack of procedural issues, Ekaterina Arapova writes.

Despite the intensification of confiscation rhetoric, the Western authorities cannot fail to understand that the cascading of such practices from the United States both causes serious damage to the reputation of a reliable financial hub of their jurisdictions, and provokes retaliatory measures from Russia.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/confiscation-of-russian-assets/

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #sanctions #RussianAssets

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