Moscow, 1 March 2022 (TDI): Russia will provisionally stop external investors from selling Russian assets to safeguard they take a measured decision, not one driven by political burden, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Tuesday as Moscow responds to escalating Western sanctions.
Russia’s massive autonomous wealth deposit will also be pressed into action, spending up to 1 trillion roubles ($10.3 billion) to buy shares in Russian firms.
“In the current sanction situation foreign entrepreneurs are forced to be guided, not by economic factors, but to make decisions under political pressure,” Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin expressed in an administrative meeting.
“In order to give the business a chance to make a considered decision, a presidential order was prepared to impose temporary curbs on exit from Russian assets,” he said, without giving facts.
Russian administration is quickening to reply to progressively strict sanctions imposed by Western countries since the Russian attack on Ukraine last Thursday.
The events series will restrict the Central Bank’s capability to use its gold and foreign exchange assets as well as elimination of big Russian banks from the international financial system.
On Monday, a drop in the rouble to all-time lows pressed the Central Bank to ramble its key interest rate to 20 percent. International corporations which have functioned in Russia for decades have said they will halt investments, including BP and Shell.
These also include shareholders, correspondingly in Russia’s top energy corporation Rosneft (ROSN.MM) and Sakhalin 2 LNG plant. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” planned not to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbor’s military competencies.
The Institute of International Finance (IIF), a trade group on behalf of large banks, has warned that Russia is enormously likely to default on its external debts.
With Moscow’s maltreated stock market shut for a second day on Tuesday, Russian resources might prove difficult even without the provisional ban.
