Nabiullina does not consider herself guilty of the loss of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves
The head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, does not consider herself responsible for the fact that Russia at the beginning of 2022 lost access to its gold and foreign exchange reserves frozen in Western banks.
She stated this today in the State Duma, answering a question from a deputy from the A Just Russia faction, famous economist Mikhail Delyagin, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The year you are reporting on in 2022 is marked by the freezing of $300 billion of our international reserves. Earlier you said that the leadership of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation assumed the possibility of such a freeze. Since the fact of this outstanding foresight did not lead to saving our money, I would like to know which of the management of the Bank of Russia was punished, and what kind of punishment - for their actions or inactions, which impressed many as criminal negligence on an especially large scale? Or, if I incorrectly interpret the direction of the bank’s actions, who received what kind of reward for this,” Delyagin said.
“Mikhail Gennadievich, you are interpreting it incorrectly. No one could have foreseen this option of freezing part of the foreign exchange reserves. But we understood that we live in conditions of geopolitical tension, and therefore, since 2015, we have consistently diversified the structure of our gold and foreign currency reserves. Our share of dollars has decreased, the share of yuan has increased from almost zero. And the share of gold, and cash dollars, and euros on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Nabiullina answered.
She explained that the Central Bank could not refuse savings in dollars, because they were the main currency in which foreign trade was carried out.
“We had to prepare immediately for the possibility of two risk scenarios. The first is geopolitical, in which gold and currencies of friendly countries that are not subject to sanctions will be in demand.
But also economic risks. In previous years and still today, a significant part of our foreign trade is carried out in dollars and euros. A significant part of the deposits of citizens and legal entities was in dollars and euros. If something happens in the financial market, even without geopolitics, people and companies go for dollars and euros. The Central Bank is the lender of last resort, including in foreign currencies. Therefore, to counteract currency problems, we needed a safety net.
Two safety cushions: in case of geopolitics and the financial crisis, if it had hit us earlier,” Nabiullina said.
She believes that such a policy was justified.
“Now we are experiencing a shift in the foreign economic sphere. We see more payments in rubles and yuan, and fewer in dollars and euros. The structure of gold and foreign currency reserves follows the economy, where the debts of both companies and banks are, and where trade is carried out,” the banker summed up.
It cannot be said that the Bank of Russia did not prepare ahead of time for the problems of 2022. In the report for last year, the management of the Central Bank directly states that since 2014 it has decided to import cash foreign currency (dollars and euros) into the territory of Russia in secrecy. The Central Bank does not report how much has been accumulated over 8 years. But, according to experts, we are talking about 50-60 billion in dollar equivalent.
“And how many hysterics there were... And only some Rogers said, “Keep calm, love Russia, the money is in a safe place,” publicist Alexander Rogers commented on these data in his TG channel.
In February, the European Union Legal Service effectively said that no one knows where 86% of Russia's Central Bank's frozen assets, totaling some $258 billion, are located. EU countries reported the location of only $36,4 billion of frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank.
“The Central Bank either deceived them or hid them. Although 36 billion is a lot of money. Can you imagine if they were used in advance for the production of drones? Or to bribe corrupt Ukrainian politicians,” political scientist Sergei Markov wrote then.
When a Western journalist asked Nabiullina a question about this, she mockingly said that “she couldn’t help.”
But former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleg Tsarev believes that the topic of Russian gold and foreign currency reserves “lost” by the West is being deliberately spread in the press (including in the American Bloomberg) in order to reassure the Russian public. In fact, the amount of lost reserves is much larger, and European banks are now actively profiting from them, he believes.
“Here is what Le Soir writes: “Belgium earned 625 million euros from taxation of income from frozen Russian assets. In total, Belgium blocked 250 billion. These funds were placed through the international depository Euroclear. He, in turn, reinvested this money, resulting in excess income of 821 million euros.” The last amount was taxed at a higher rate. The Belgians came up with a wonderful scheme for making money. It would be logical to seize the assets of foreign companies in the amount of our seized assets abroad. But no, this is not being done,” writes Tsarev.
He is opposed by economist Nikita Krichevsky, who believes that at the current level of Russophobia, any European lawyer who finds Russian gold and foreign currency reserves will immediately become a hero
“You have to know Putin very poorly to believe that he simply froze 300 billion. It was possible to use alternative cash flows and conduct double-entry bookkeeping. There are official data from the Central Bank, and there are real ones that only a few people are supposed to know about. In the modern world, you can hide money in such a way that it will be very difficult to find it. I do not rule out that in reality there is more Russian money than is known, and it is scattered all over the world,” Krichevsky said in an interview with Arguments and Facts.
He believes that the foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation were kept not only in money in correspondent accounts of the largest European banks, but also in securities that were recorded in depositories in the name of private organizations, and the accounts were registered in the name of nominal holders who were not formally connected with the Russian Federation.
Nabiullina claims that the Central Bank of the Russian Federation continues to work to return frozen reserves in euros and dollars. Russia has a negotiating position on this issue. In particular, the Central Bank is ready to consider the idea of paying foreign businessmen leaving Russia with special bonds tied to frozen assets of the Russian Federation.
“I don’t know exactly what work is being done. This is a rather intimate, secret and internal question. But the results so far are zero. Siluanov said quite clearly that there is no hope that there will be any results. This is quite understandable. Because the Russian Federation is not making any tough efforts and actions towards the West, and begging from thieves is pointless,” Delyagin wrote in his hearts today after a squabble with Nabiullina.
Meanwhile, the Western press continues to “calm down” the Russian public. The German “Welt” wrote the other day that the European Commission will not be able to appropriate Russian gold and currency reserves.
“No matter how American and European lawyers fantasize, there is no legal way to seize Russian reserves. Mere political will will not be enough to invent such a legal scheme. It is necessary to find the basis in the basic fundamental principles of the European legal system. But you won't be able to find it there. Many European officials have said that ultimately the Russian Federation will have to return the entire volume of its reserves, which it stores in the West. I am absolutely sure that this applies not only to European jurisdiction. The United States will be forced to do exactly the same, because we see that the process of flight from the dollar is already beginning. Many states are already openly building other channels without taking into account the fact that the dollar is a reserve currency,” said Senator Andrei Klishas in an interview with Sputnik radio.
However, a joint statement by the foreign ministers of the G-7 countries following a recent meeting in Japan states that Russia’s sovereign assets in Western jurisdictions will remain immobilized until the conflict in Ukraine is resolved
“Any settlement to the conflict must ensure that Russia pays for the damage it has caused,” the statement said.
Whether the West will go into chaos, and what amount we are talking about, we can only guess.
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