Press Note: Russia's Threat to Expropriate Foreign Assets

 Washington, October 10 – Center for a New American Security Senior Fellow and Energy, Environment, and Security Program Director Elizabeth Rosenberg has written a new Press Note on the Russian Duma’s legislation that would allow Russia to expropriate foreign assets. The Press Note is below:

The Duma's new move to advance legislation that would allow foreign assets in Russia to be expropriated to compensate the Russian targets of western sanctions is an aggressive tit for tat. Russia is signaling its drive for retribution for U.S. and European sanctions and is preparing a powerful tool that it hopes to use as a bargaining card. It will also serve as a convenient tool for the Russian government to move assets around the Russian economy and redistribute wealth. Even while this legislation is still in process and has not yet been enacted, it sends a strong message, and could be extremely consequential if actually used.

Ultimately, if deployed, this new expropriation authority could be used against thousands of foreign companies with billions in Russia. Foreign companies that could be implicated, and their governments, see this shot across the bow and are cautiously watching to see whether Moscow will finalize the new legislation and how they may plan to use it if the crisis over Ukraine worsens.
 
Ms. Rosenberg is available for interviews on Russia’s latest actions. To arrange an interview, please contact Neal Urwitz at nurwitz@cnas.org, or call 202-457-9409.