MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has seized assets worth 3.9 trillion rubles in the past three years, or the current exchange rate is about $50 billion, emphasizing the economic model of the transformation to the scale of the “Russian fortress”.
Foreign companies have been at risk of national seizures since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, but Moscow is increasingly shifting its attention to domestic assets, citing strategic stability and domestic security.
The scale of asset epilepsy seizures calculated by the NSP law firm shows the extent to which Russia has changed from a relatively open economy to a “fortress” model, Kommersant, one of Russia’s most respected newspapers.
Law firms suggest business owners open up potential weaknesses that can be used as a basis for grasping assets, including a second passport or a country classified as “unfriendly” with Russia – broadly the entire Western world.
Kommersant said it also advises owners should consider doing business with state-owned partners.
Kommersant said that under the law of the strategic company, approximately 1.54 trillion rubles of assets have been seized, with 1.07 trillion rubles occupying the grounds of corruption, 385 billion rubles and 621.5 billion rubles due to suspected violations of privatization, and 621.5 billion rubles due to claims under effective management.
The depravity of the Soviet Union came in 1991, hoping that Russia could transform into an open free market economy integrated into a global economy, despite the enormous corruption, economic turmoil and crime that undermined confidence in democratic capitalism in the 1990s.
President Vladimir Putin took power for the first eight years to support economic freedom, targeting some so-called oligarchs and presided over significant growth in economic growth, seeing economic growth reaching $1.8 trillion in 2008 and from $200 billion in 1999.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the economy grew to $2.3 trillion between 2008 and 2022, despite tough attacks from Western sanctions after annexed Crimea in 2014.
Although the Russian economy performed better than expected during the Ukrainian war, its nominal dollar size was only $2.2 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund.
($1 = 78.2000 rubles)
(Reported by Guy Faulconbridge, edited by Louise Heavens)
