Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences explained why the Russian Federation cannot respond in a mirror way to the freezing of its assets
Russian state-owned companies need to repay loans they previously took out in the West.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, economist Abel Aganbegyan said this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Trying to act within the framework of the law, we nationalize or give to commercial organizations the property left with us by foreign companies from unfriendly countries leaving Russia.
But if, for example, large state-owned companies at one time took out a loan in the West, at the expense of which they commissioned their facilities, then these funds must be returned, otherwise they will be declared in default and will not be able to export their goods or take them abroad. The funds will be legally taken away for debts,” the academician said in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets.
He was asked about the size of Russian foreign debt.
“Russia’s external debt, the overwhelming majority of which is corporate debt of enterprises, amounts to $1 billion as of January 2024, 327, while as of January 1, 2014, before we were excommunicated from the world market and before sanctions were imposed on Russia after annexation of Crimea was equal to $728 billion.
We have returned $400 billion and have been paying significant interest all this time. Our country, compared to other countries, has minimal external debt, about 20% of GDP, while the leading countries of the world have debt that usually exceeds their GDP. This also applies to China,” the economist noted.
According to him, Russia cannot respond in a mirror way to the freezing of its state funds in the West.
“If they also kept their state funds with us, we could arrest them. But they do not keep such funds with us, and it is impossible to seize loans from private Western investors to our commercial organizations, because these organizations did not seize our funds.
The question of the selection of our seized funds, as well as the profit they provide, is still under discussion. International courts have not yet considered them. Let’s see what happens next,” Aganbegyan concluded.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.