Russian Law Proposes Foreign Asset Seizures To Compensate Those Affected By Ukraine Sanctions

[uhnope]

Source: IBT

Russia took the first step Wednesday towards enacting a law that would allow foreign-owned assets to be seized and used to compensate citizens and companies that have been targeted by Western Sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
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The legislation is known unofficially as the “Rotenberg Law” in Russia, named after Arkady Rotenberg, a wealthy industrialist and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin's, who had $40 million of real estate in Italy seized by authorities there under US and EU sanctions.

The bill stipulates that Russians whose "rights are infringed" by foreign courts can apply for compensation from the Russian state. Russian courts can then order the seizure of assets owned by the country in question in Russia, to recoup the cost, according to the Financial Times. The types of assets that can be seized for compensation include diplomatic real estate.

The lower house of Russia's Parliament, known as the Duma, passed the bill by a vote of 233 to 202, an unusually close margin in the Russian legislature, where unanimous votes are not uncommon. The bill must pass the Duma three times, before being passed by the upper house once, and then being signed by President Putin to become law.

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/russian-law-proposes-foreign-asset-seizures-compensate-those-affected-ukraine-sanctions-1701892

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WOW. Putin's oligarchs are feeling the pain and now want to get their million$ back by seizing the assets of western companies in Russia. A new kind of welfare for the megarich, and which would cause the Russian economy to melt down even more as western businesses flee.

[geek tragedy]

1. Hey, if foregoing foreign investment for eternity is worth making plutocrats feel better,

more power to them.

Disgusting fascist oligarchy.

[daleo]

2. Only the west is allowed to use sanctions, blockades and asset seizures

Everyone knows that.

[rpannier]

7. What diplomatic assets are being seized by the west

The types of assets that can be seized for compensation include diplomatic real estate.

[ballyhoo]

3. Turnabout is fair play....

[Bradical79]

15. True

Though it's a matter of who comes out the bigger loser in this case. Probably why the vote was so unusually close. The question is would asset seizure to compensate your wealthiest citizens compound any economic problems caused by sanctions? I don't see how this is effective "turnabout".

[ballyhoo]

16. Me neither. But, in this case, at this time in our

fragmenting world, I would say that the efficacy of any turnabout decision is pretty much up to the party making the decision to do it. 20 years ago I wouldn't have said this. But with us coming closer and closer to end-game, I see things differently.

[Tarheel_Dem]

4. Businessweek: Here's Who's Getting Hammered By Russia's Falling Ruble

"President Vladimir Putin may control the levers of power in Russia, but there’s one thing he hasn’t been able to control: the relentless slide of the ruble.

The currency is down about 20 percent against the dollar since January and is now at its lowest level since Russia’s 1998 debt default. Its performance this year is the worst of any major currency except Argentina’s peso.

The central bank runs the risk of depleting its reserves if it keeps spending to prop up the ruble. That’s why many analysts are betting its next move will be to hike interest rates as early as this month, pushing its key lending rate to 8.5 percent. That would put the brakes on economic growth that’s already sputtering.

In the meantime, the falling ruble claims more and more victims. They include:

• Russian consumers. As the currency sinks, inflation has risen to 8 percent, including an 11.4 percent year-on-year rise in food prices during September, according to the state statistics service. Sales of imported consumer goods such as laptop computers have collapsed, and Russians are holding off on buying cars and other big-ticket items."

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-07/the-havoc-wreaked-by-the-falling-ruble

Couldn't happen to a bigger, more deserving a**hole.

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. Bloomberg: Russia Spends Up to $1.75 Billion in Two Days to Buoy Ruble

By Vladimir Kuznetsov Oct 7, 2014

Russia’s central bank spent as much as $1.75 billion to prop up the ruble over the last two trading days, its biggest market intervention since President Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine in March.

Russia’s central bank spent the equivalent of $980 million to shore up the ruble on Oct. 3, the latest data on the authority’s website showed today. The bank also said it shifted the upper boundary of the currency’s trading band by 10 kopeks yesterday, a move that may have involved spending between $420 million and $769 million that day. The exchange rate weakened 0.3 percent to 44.6234 versus the basket by 5:12 p.m. in Moscow, set for a record low for the fourth time this month.

Putin is suffering the consequences for shaking up the post-Cold War order in eastern Europe as the U.S. and European Union impose sanctions on his economy and investors pull money out of the country. Demand for dollars and euros is growing among Russian companies locked out of western debt markets as they contend with $54.7 billion of debt repayments in the next three months, according to central bank data.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-07/russia-spent-980-million-in-biggest-intervention-since-march.html

[cstanleytech]

6. Ya know there is a way out of this mess Putin created and that is

to negotiate with the Ukrainian government in good faith to pull out all Russian troops from the Ukraine and to stop both the official and unofficial support for the Ukrainian "rebels".

[Purveyor]

8. Russia is not the only one feeling the pain: Flat German Economic Growth: UBS Chairman

Deeper Sanctions Against Russia Could Result In Flat German Economic Growth: UBS Chairman

WASHINGTON, October 8 (RIA Novosti) -The impact on Germany of deeper sanctions against Russia could result in flat economic growth over the next 18 months, the chairman of the Swiss bank UBS, Axel Weber said on Wednesday.

"I think going forward if there is a full-fledged...Cuban, Iran type of embargo, expect German growth to be flat both in '14 and '15 ," warned Weber during his speech on the global economic outlook at the Peterson Institute. "So for the next one and a half years, with growth being penciled in at 1.4 percent, if the entire Russian exports disappear, that will be a challenging environment in Germany," he added.

Weber told RIA Novosti that following the unrest in Ukraine and Crimea's rejoining the Russian Federation, Germany "put itself at the core of the sanction regime against Russia." German exports to Russia account for approximately 1.4 percent of the country's GDP, according to Weber. In the second quarter, the impact of the sanctions, Russian embargo, and military conflict in Ukraine knocked one third of those exports off the state's balance sheets.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel has argued that she is not considering lifting the sanctions regime, a number of German businesses have called for relief.

According to recent statements from Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, it will be up to the nations in the West who imposed the sanctions to decide whether or not to lift them. In the meantime, Russia will continue to work towards the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine as prescribed by the Minsk agreements.

more...

http://en.ria.ru/politics/20141009/193829752/Deeper-Sanctions-Against-Russia-Could-Result-In-Flat-German.html

At the end of the day, who has the greater stomach to handle an economic downturn, the West or the East? My chips are on the East considering the latest polling and their sense of pride that finally they are spitting into the face of the West.

[geek tragedy]

10. in terms of real economic power and influence, Russia will lose a lot more.

Pauper, beggar states don't have a lot of mojo around the globe.

[Adrahil]

11. They already are.....

The Ruble is plummeting. Foreign capital is fleeing, inflation is up. And this isn't just form sanctions. Putin, like his Soviet masters before him, thinks he can macho the economy into doing his bidding. What a freaking idiot.

My fear is that a stagnating economy will drive him to even more insanity to whip up nationalism to maintain his support base.

His fans here will be along any moment...

[geek tragedy]

12. he knows he can't command the economy to do well, he's not Maduro

but he is an ultranationalist and a fascist.

[Adrahil]

13. I think you're right... I was being a bit sarcastic.

But I do think he thinks he can leverage what little influence he has to affect changes in consumer behavior. But people can't spend what they don't have, and oil prices are down significantly.

[uhnope]

14. Germany's "flat growth" economy would equal roaring boom times in Russia

hardly comparable

[Adrahil]

9. And... The rest of foreign capital flees Putinistan.

I hope Crimea was worth it!

[Tarheel_Dem]

17. WSJ: Russian Companies Clamor for Dollars to Repay Debt

Corporate Demand for Dollars Adds to Pressure on the Crumbling Ruble

By Chiara Albanese and Ben Edwards
Updated Oct. 9, 2014



Russian companies are clamoring for dollars to repay and refinance debt, adding to the relentless pressure on the crumbling ruble.
Debt repayments from companies and banks are light for now. But markets are anticipating the hump that comes in December, when around $34 billion in debt and interest repayments fall due, according to data from the central bank.

With sanctions in place, many firms are largely frozen out of international debt markets and unable to roll over that debt. That leaves them turning to the open market for dollars, jacking up the cost of buying them.

Mixed in with a sliding oil price, signs of Russian economic weakness, and persistent outflows of banking deposits, that keeps the ruble—already stuck at record lows—under heavy pressure.

“The pressure on the ruble is now coming from the corporate sector. Several Russian companies have a lot of maturities coming up and can’t roll this debt,” said Viktor Szabo, emerging-market investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management, a company which manages £331.2 billion ($535.48 billion).

http://online.wsj.com/articles/russian-companies-clamor-for-dollars-to-repay-debt-1412860551