After thinking about it for half a year, the United States still couldn't help but play the idea of Russia's overseas assets, and Russia was also angry this time, and the chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Matviyenko, vowed that Russia would launch a strong revenge. This time, Russia is ready to give it a go, and the cards of the Russian side have been spread.
A few days ago, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress passed two bills by a high vote, one is a bill worth nearly $61 billion to aid Ukraine, and the other is to allow US President Joe Biden to confiscate Russian overseas assets that have been frozen and use them to aid Ukraine.
The United States has been eyeing Russia's overseas assets since at least the end of last year, but has encountered some practical difficulties. According to the New York Times, there are only about $5 billion in overseas assets of the Central Bank of Russia in the hands of American institutions, and most of Russia's foreign exchange reserves are stored in Europe.
Therefore, at the end of last year, the United States tentatively put forward the idea of "considering confiscating the assets of the Central Bank of Russia." However, this idea has not yet been truly written and handed over to Europe, and it has been opposed within the United States, and many officials are worried that once this precedent is set, other countries will not dare to deposit funds in US banks, and the credit of the US dollar will be damaged.
At that time, Russia warned the United States and Europe that if they dared to do so, Russia would also respond in reciprocity by confiscating the assets stored in Russia by foreign legal entities and individuals. Now, the United States Congress has officially passed this bill, and the Russian side has finally made up its mind and is ready to launch a Jedi counterattack.
On the 23rd local time, Matviyenko said that Russia had drafted a draft law on countermeasures, and the Federation Council would consider it immediately, and she also warned that if Russia's assets were confiscated, Russia's retaliation would be a "heavy blow" to European businesses and would cause damage to the global economy. As soon as this sentence is spoken, it means that the matter cannot end well.
Offensive preparations are one thing, defensive preparations are another, how to make up for the deficit of Russia's overseas assets, the Russian side thought of China. In February this year, Russian Finance Minister Siluanov revealed that Russia was discussing with China the possibility of borrowing renminbi. Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the West has imposed more than 20,000 financial sanctions on Russia. Some time ago, the IMF predicted that Russia's GDP growth rate will exceed that of the G7 countries in the next two years, and the United States naturally can't wait to confiscate Russia's overseas assets. Then Russia will certainly be closely united with China.
In fact, Russia has long regarded China as its biggest hole card. When Matviyenko held a meeting with the Chinese side at the highest level last year, the Chinese side gave a new connotation to the relations between the two countries, which can be summed up in 16 words: "mutual assistance, in-depth integration, pioneering and innovation, and win-win results for all". The four words "watch and help each other" show that China and Russia have entrusted their backs to each other, so it is not an exaggeration to say that China is Russia's hole card.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is about to visit China, and the G7 has issued a warning to China, claiming that China and Russia are not allowed to cooperate, and the U.S. Congress has just passed a bill to impose sanctions on Chinese financial institutions to pressure China and Russia to "break up". The West's move is obvious, as if it is trying to push Russia into a corner, and at the moment it is only the United States, but in the future, the G7 will also join the queue of plotting to seize Russian property, and Russia is bound to launch a strong counterattack.
Today's world is in the midst of unprecedented changes, and Sino-Russian cooperation is not only in the economic, trade and security fields, but also in jointly countering threats and hegemony. China and Russia are interdependent, and if Russia falls, the next target of siege by the United States and the West will definitely be to "systematically challenge" China, and in order to respond to each other and counter the hegemony of the United States, China will never let Russia fight alone. At present, China's high-level officials are being invited to Russia to attend the 12th International Conference of High Representatives for Security Affairs and visit Russia.