The Russians have about $120 billion to be frozen in Western banks

Russian citizens had at least $122.3 billion deposited with Western banks as of September 2021, according to data provided by these institutions to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

The figure gives an idea of the money now frozen in Western banks, with the sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe on Russian assets due to the invasion of Ukraine.

EU sanctions against the Russian Central Bank come into force
Europe, the United States and Canada have decided to ban Russian banks from using Swift

“The impact is not just limited to Russia,” says an economist on Swift’s exclusion of Russian banks.

It is curious that the Russians prefer French banks, since 24.9 billion dollars are deposited in institutions in these countries. Then comes the $23.2 billion in Swiss banks.

Russian money in American banks amounted to $20.2 billion and in British banks $14.5 billion.

In countries such as Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Chile, Russians did not have deposits in local banks.

However, the figures reported to the BIS seem very modest, including due to frequent capital flight in Russia. Apparently, there is a lot of practice to hide the origin of money through opaque entities.

Some analysts estimate that Switzerland alone receives between $5 billion and $10 billion in additional Russian money annually.

The Swiss government said last week that Swiss banks will no longer accept any money from people and companies on sanctions lists. The question that the Swiss government must decide today is whether to freeze the funds already deposited by the Russians.

Swiss President Ignazio Cassis told French television that it was “very likely” that the government would decide to tighten sanctions against Russia at a meeting on Monday. But he refused to confirm whether the country would fully follow the United States and Europe in financial sanctions against the Russian elite who support Vladimir Putin in his invasion of Ukraine.