Lavrov: The Freezing of Central Bank Reserves Was Not Anticipated

Editor’s note: Not anticipated. So maybe it’s not the “sophisticated shadow play” some are still clinging to?


Source: Kommersant

Machine translated from Russian.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that no one predicted the arrest by the West of the assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The minister again called the seizure of $300 billion worth of Russian assets “theft.”

“When they froze the central bnak reserves, nobody who was predicting what sanctions the west would pass could have pictured that. It’s just thievery. “said Mr. Lavrov during a speech to students and teachers of MGIMO.

About half of the central bank’s gold and foreign exchange reserves ($300 billion) were frozen due to sanctions imposed by the West in response to the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. On March 20, France blocked the Central Bank’s funds for € 22 billion. In addition to freezing the assets of the Russian Central Bank, the EU disconnected seven Russian banks from SWIFT. Sanctions led to a sharp drop in the ruble, the dollar and the euro updated historical highs.

38 Comments
  1. demis91556 says

    hnjfhj

    1. Eddy says

      Good move, but will they stick to it ???

  2. ken says

    So Mister Lavrov is admitting they were that stupid… I mean not even consider the possibility! Their central bank head likely knew it would happen but never said a word?

    This is beyond comprehension! It is so stupid I find it difficult to even comment. What did they think the US/West would do? I mean US/West sanctions aren’t exactly a new thing. I sure hope the same people aren’t running the war….

    I guess a thank you for your 300 billion is in order.

    Somting not right right here!

    1. paul bryce says

      Something is not right here and Russia may be being played like Hitler by the same Central Bankers.

    2. Beau says

      Ken, I totally agree with you.
      I have been following Russian affairs for years, and I am a strong supporter of their plans for development of their country (I would love to live in Russia).
      But I cannot get my head around the fact that the Russian Central Bank and the financial leadership did not foresee this freezing of their assets in Wsetern banks.
      For Heaven’s sake the West already froze the assets of Iran post 1980 Revolution, the Venezuelan gold was seezed in London (2021), after the fiasco of the American defeat in Afghanistan (2021) the US Treasury froze $7.5 US Billion of Afghan Central Bank funds ….
      And these F***ing imbeciles in the top Russian financial elites could not read the omens???
      It is either incompetence or corruption …. and I tend to believe corruption.
      The financial elites with Nabiullina in first place, dream of being accepted into the Western elites ………. and therefore are willing to betray their own country!!!!
      Russia’s tragedy, historically, has always been betrayal from within, the so-called Fifth Column.

      1. ken says

        Yes,,, its pretty stupid BUT admitting it was even worse. There has to be more to this than what it seems. Either that or they need some new advisors and a new central bank person….

        One thing they are doing right is Putin is gonna demand payment for their exports in rubles. That should really help the Ruble and Russia.

        Maybe they’ll get their act together yet?

        1. Beau says

          Hi Ken;
          Thank you for answering my comments. I am not sure I understand how requiring payments being made in roubles actually helps.

          I was thinking of this at length … and I am stumped.

          I can clearly see that this will cause a strong demand for roubles by foreign purchasers … therefore strengthening the rouble.
          But at what exchange rate? If they pay in roubles at the 75 rouble/USD (rate before the sanctions) today, then Russia is defacto granting them a massive discount compared to to today’s rate (about 100 rouble/USD).
          Anything Russia needs to import will be paid at 100 rouble/USD.

          As I said my fear is that the vaunted “educated and clever” Russians have been tricked by the Fifth Column inside Russia ….

          $300 USD Billion is the equivalent of 2 years of Russian exports to the EU!!!

          1. Kieran says

            exchange rate will not remain static. Rouble will strengthen here onwards and Western fiat currencies will weaken correspondingly as dependence on Russian energy and resources will push demand for Rouble which will be invested in gold and economies of friendly nations only; China and India come to mind. Besides other economies are not blind to whats happening. this will hasten dedollarization and encourage bilateral trading accounts like India has rupee-rouble trading with Russia and rupee-rial trading with Iran worth several billion $$ but not a single dollar transacted

            1. Kieran says

              Is this not akin to a petro-Rouble and hence US desperation for Venezuela and Saudi to play ball? Don’t know what Venezuela will decide but MBS ignored Biden’s calls seems to be in the Russian camp. Venezuela should try to get their gold repatriated first before making any moves

            2. Beau says

              The strange thing about Venezuela, is that the US government went to talk to them last week. They asked/begged the Maduro government to start selling oil to the US, to alleviate the oil shortage following sanctions on Russia.
              This is the same US government which officially recognized Guaido as the president!!!
              For crying out loud, they do not recognize Maduro as president, convince the British to confiscate Venezuelan gold and give it to Guaido …. and now they want Maduro to play nice with the US?
              Where are these imbeciles created, out of which insane asylum did they hatch?

            3. Kieran says

              one can only hope Maduro is a man of integrity and puts his nation first and sees that gold is returned, sanctions repealed, damages to his economy and hardships endured by his people are sufficiently compensated before he plays ball

      2. Eddy says

        Agree totally with your post.

    3. Steve Kastl says

      The problem is that criminally incompetent USA leaders are in the process of causing another Great Depression on purpose. Confiscating or stealing Russian oil money is similar to US cops confiscating money from US citizens they stop for traffic violations. Our corrupt courts with illiterate rapist judges will always side with the Israeli duel citizens running our government. When your bankers are the Rothschild crime family, one cannot win. It is a rigged system Russia was working in.

      1. Eddy says

        Then Russia needs to exit that rigged system.

      2. Steve Kastl says

        I just reread my screed from two days ago. Still feel the same.

    4. Eddy says

      Inclinde to agree with you on this one Ken. Something very strange going on here.

    5. Beau says

      In my dealings with Russians, and based on what I have read about how Putin and Lavrov continually talk about international law and the rule of law, I noticed a strong focus on following the rules.

      When I went to Russia, I did not stay in hotels but rented fully furnished apartments. All the communication was done from Canada, the apartments were booked from my home, cost agreed upon, without any downpayment … and I never had any issues whatsoever upon my arrival. It was always exactly as we agreed: same price, same conditions, etc. No attempt to renegociate the terms, increase the costs, nothing.

      In North America contracts are meant to be broken/abused. I am an engineer on mega projects, and I am very familiar with contract law. Our attitude to a contract is “how can I take advantage of the other guy”. It is never: we will fulfill the contract in good faith.

      That is the reason that every year the US educates 5 times more lawyers than engineers!!!!

      In that sense I believe the Russians are very naive. They believe that North Americans or Europeans will behave in the same manner as they do: the terms are the terms … and we will abide by them.

      I should know: I negociated mega contracts, and I know how devious Anglo-saxons are. Just look how they have seized assets (mega yachts, Chelsea football club, houses, etc) belonging to Russian oligarchs … based solely on their being Russian for f**k sake

      It despairs me to see the Russians displaying this childlike faith in the Anglo-saxon law and contracts … because the worst sharks in the world are anglo-saxons.

      The French have an excellent expression for the United Kingdom:

      “La Perfide Albion”… enough said

  3. paul bryce says

    Puzzling on the level of *** controlled Central Banks doing this? But then they play both sides to profit from war on both sides. The money lenders (usury) are the ones to watch here. At the end of the day their goals are not being anticipated by very many. 

  4. paul bryce says

    I believe this is fake surprise by Russia. Putin knew the *** Oligarchs would fight back and their weapon is money/gold. If this did surprise Russia don’t expect Putin to surrender anytime soon. All this is going to do is polarize the world away from the US Dollar which was collapsing anyways and give the worlds Bankers an excuse to say Russia collapsed the US Dollar. It was being engineered to anyways right on schedule. Global digital currency run by the central banks is right around the corner. The sheeple just keep buying their lies whether its covid, ukraine, 911, war on terror (Iraq,Afghanistan,Libya). You should go watch Ghadafi’s UN speech just a year or so before they killed him. I watched a documentary about Libya’s water pipeline in the desert which was just about completed but now lies in ruins because of the war. Israel will not allow any other powers to rise up and challenge its world domination plans.

    1. Eddy says

      Share your beliefs 100%.

  5. Ilya G Poimandres says

    How do you anticipate your opponent in some game pulling a revolver on themselves and playing Russian roulette with six loaded into the chamber?

  6. XSFRGR says

    Surely the Russians aren’t so naive as to think that there is any act too low for the West, especially the good old U$A.

  7. pikixaw919 says

    kghyikui

    1. Eric the Red says

      Pakistan… a perpetual evil on the soul of humanity.

  8. anon says

    The fact Putin has reappointed Elvira Nabiullina as chief of the Russian central bank should be cause for concern should it not?

    so riddle me that..

  9. Adam says

    I was saying this 8 years ago on Zero hedge and they kicked out. Russians and east Europeans, but especially Russians behave like functional illiterate poppies in love with the westerners and were prepared to humiliate themselves to any level just to be accepted. These guys have put sanctions on Russia for 30 years, kicked out Russian diplomats, confiscated a couple of Russian diplomatic buildings, put sanctions on Russian Oligarchs and confiscated their properties and bank accounts. And still they did not see it fit to transfer all the funds and gold in western countries before they started this military operation. This is the kind of colonial mentality you expert from former French colonies in Africa to do. The kind of amateurish mistake proves my hypothesis that Russians are cognitively colonised by the westerners, because Russians from the elites, educated classes Oligarchs and ordinary citizens validate their identity on European whiteness, therefor they see themselves as worthless without the Europeans, therefore they have to do anything, like a battered abused wife just to get invited or recognised by a husband who has shown over decades that he does not give a shit about her. that is the only way you explain this tragedy of Russians expecting their money would be safe in western banks, once hostility started.

    When the Angolans asked Fidel Castro for some help with guns to defend themselves from the FLN, UNITA and South African army on the eve of their independence in 1975, he told the Angolans they don’t understand who they are dealing with, because the west would crush them like a bug, he then proceeded to send over 400 thousand Cuban soldiers with all their missiles, SAMs, armoured vehicles and fought them to standstill for 17 years. That was in 1975 and Fidel said he did not tell the Russians, because the Russians have no balls to fight the west, they are always eager to please the west in order to be liked. We are in 2022 and nothing has changed in the psychological makeup of the Russians. The only thing they do best is waste money on decadent extravagant lifestyles and useless materialism.

    Over $300 billion is what they left in western banks, Russia is a vast country, they could have built 300 new cities or towns with universities and research centres in them. To enhance the skills and abilities of their young people, in collaboration with Chinese and other students and lecturers that would come through. At the same time creating the foundation for new communities across Russia, but instead they left it in western banks. The Oligarch’s also used theirs to buy Yacht’s, Peers, news papers and football clubs and now all those buildings, Yachts, football clubs and bank accounts are all confiscated. Just like the Russian state, Russian Oligarchs have had their visa’s cancelled, their properties confiscated and Yachts confiscated over the years, but still because they all suffer from the same internalised inferiority complex of their identity only validated by being invited into white western society, they are prepared to prostrate themselves before westerners just to be accepted, like poppies. When they could use that money to create dynamic towns, cities and spaces across the vastness of Russia, its just pathetic.

    The Problem with conquered people is they take novelties of civilization when all it is, is features of their own subjugation and enslavement (Tacitus, C., AD96 ‘Agricola of Tacitus’ )

    The Russians and eastern eastern Europeans are all a truly conquered people. You only need to look at how the Russians and eastern Europeans invited the westerners in to run their economic policy for them in their transition from communism to capitalist market economy, due to their internalised inferiority complex perception that the westerners were superior and today both Russia, the former Soviet republics and the east Europeans in the EU are all basically colonised. They had all the resources, a massive country and the most technically educated population, but they are in the position they are because they have an internalised inferiority complex towards the westerners.

    Compared to how the Chinese handled the same type of transition, with less resources, less technically educated people, less landmass and more people to feed through a difficult transition. The difference was self believe in their identity, culture, understanding of their history vis-a-vis the westerners and a consciousness of who they are and the taxonomies on which their identity and history is derived. Until the Russians develop that consciousness, instead of the wasteful decadent ostentatious lifestyle that they think would endear to westerners, its only a matter of time before the westerners, would play on that internalised inferiority complex, lack of true identity, weak critical psychological analyses to deploy their love for decadent materialism to destroy them from within like they did Yugoslavia and Ukraine, telling Ukraine they could have an economy like France, that is the kind of fairytale stories naive children belive and until now the Russians have behaved like functional illiterate naive chikdren

    1. guest says

      Very good observation on the countries that were “liberated” in 1990 and after.
      There is no time left to develop consciousness. By 2050 western Europe will be non-european (as London is now a non-english city). These new-europeans will be free to take up residence in eastern Europe, and cause the same consequences they caused in Western Europe. As we speak, the Russians are becoming a minority in Russia. The rich people and the government employees in Moscow and Leningrad will do fine, without any consciousness, but the Slavs of Slavia will be on the recieving end, just as the Germans, French, Americans already are.

      Fidel Castro was installed in Cuba by the U.S. State Department (and its CIA).

  10. Cap960 says

    I am surprised Venezuela didn’t come to mind….Russia, come on!

  11. Eric the Red says

    Pakistan… a festering sore on the face of humanity.

  12. Eric the Red says

    Pakistan… a scar on the face of humanity.

  13. Eric the Red says

    Pakistan… a blight on the face of humanity.

  14. Eric the Red says

    Pakistan… a stench in the nose of humanity.

  15. Eric the Red says

    Pakistan… an infection in the body of humanity.

  16. Eric the Red says

    Pakistan… a piece of slime on the backside of humanity.

  17. Eddy says

    COME ON Lavrov, SERIOUSLY ????????? After everything the West has dished out to Russia, you didn’t expect such a response ????? Give us a break ! That’s the most stupid thing I’ve heard coming from your mouth. IMHO, EVERY resource available to Russia to ensure the stability and viability of Russia’s economy should have been PROTECTED, INCLUDING The Central Bank Of The Russian Federation, for crying out loud. Many people are saying Russia is in cahoots with the N.W.O. especially after Putin agreed to the Covid crap and accepting funds from them. This latest episode, of not covering your central bank seems to vindicate those claims. I hope I’m wrong.

    1. Maiasta says

      “This latest episode…seems to vindicate those claims. I hope I’m wrong.”

      You’re not wrong. And these guys are nowhere near as dumb as they are pretending to be.

  18. Richseeto says

    It is surprising that Russia has not woken up to the fact that the US with its Running Dogs of War, the EU+UK etc are the biggest known thieves and robbers the world has known.
    So, in order to play the Game of Thieves, Russia should also seize any assets of those Western spivs and robbers.

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