Finance Minister Siluanov promises tit-for-tat measures for using income from Russian assets frozen abroad

MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) - The Russian authorities could respond with tit-for-tat measures against unfriendly countries that use income received from investing frozen Russian assets, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in a statement.

"We also have frozen the funds payable on our bonds, obligations to partners from unfriendly countries, and they are frozen too. Then we will do the same in this case," Siluanov said during an interview with Asharq TV when commenting on a number of countries discussing the possibility of using income from investing Russian frozen assets to provide assistance to Ukraine.

The Euroclear international depository in the first half of 2023 received over 1.7 billion euros in interest income from investing frozen Russian assets versus 800 million euros for all of 2022 from the moment of blocking the assets.

The actual volume of funds in special "C" type ruble accounts, on which, among other matters, income on securities owned by unfriendly non-residents is blocked, has not been disclosed. The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has estimated that the overall funds in the special accounts exceeded 280 billion rubles as at the beginning of November 2022. This was the only time that the CBR has disclosed the figure, having refrained from comment since then.

According to Interfax sources, funds in the "C" accounts had approached 600 billion rubles at the end of 2022. The CBR recently disclosed an approximate figure in the regulator's analytical review of the banking sector for the first quarter of 2023. According to the review, funds totaling 700 billion rubles, which had accumulated in type "C" accounts, were transferred from the National Settlement Depository (NSD) to the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). The CBR's board of directors decided on December 29, 2022, that lending institutions were required to open "C" accounts in the DIA by at least January 20, 2023.