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Comment by stadium | Hacker News Reader

What are the goals of this action? Is this to prevent a fire sale from foreign institutional holders who are exiting their positions in Russian securities?

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I posted this in a different thread (on BP's divestment), but I think it applies here: this technique seems likely to backfire, since companies may view Russia as indeterminately risky and simply choose to value their holdings at $0.

I'm not sure what their end game is here, but buying back foreign interests in your country for pennies on the dollar seems like a much smarter move than triggering a crisis in faith. But maybe that's why I don't run the Kremlin!

That also puts you on track to become the next Argentina, if you stay on the track.

Which country is "you" here? If you mean Russia, I agree: it's hard to see how this goes anywhere good for them.

Yeah, Russia. They're doomed if they're really doing this. It's quite close to a default on national debt.

Ask Argentinians how it's like to live in a country that does that.

Russia defaulted in 1998 and it wasn't pretty for the population

It's almost like they're sanctioning themselves!

Maybe also preserving the ability to seize these assets from foreigners, instead of letting them convert it to cash and move their wealth beyond Russia's reach?

This seems more like discriminating based on nationality.

So far no sanctions are seizing assets of ordinary Russians.. nobody is even talking about this.

Are you sure? I see many reporting their personal balances frozen by foreign institutions, and outright refused to return.

All sanctions mostly hurt regular people.

I'm sure the sudden drop in the FX rate will hurt those living paycheck to paycheck the most, instead of the rich who don't even hold any currency, just valuable assets.

Seizure of central bank foreign reserves on this scale (600 BILLION), I believe, is entirely unprecedented?

All it's going to do it hurt the poor. Oligarchs are going to be A-OK.

This was not only talked about but there are now draft laws in the EU about exactly that

  Article 1c 1. It shall be prohibited for Union central securities depositories to provide any services as defined in the Annex of Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council\* for transferable securities issued after 12 April 2022 to any Russian national or natural person residing in Russia or any legal person, entity or body established in Russia. 2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply to natural persons who are nationals of a Member State or having a temporary or permanent residence permit in a Member State

  Article 1d 1. It shall be prohibited to sell euro denominated transferable securities issued after 12 April 2022 or units in collective investment undertakings providing exposure to such securities, to any Russian national or natural person residing in Russia or any legal person, entity or body established in Russia. 2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply to nationals of a Member State or natural persons having a temporary or permanent residence permit in a Member State

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELE...

I'm trying to figure out how this reply was intended and failing, it seems like it is based on something other than what I meant to say though, so I'm just going to re-iterate my point in case it wasn't clear.

I wasn't suggesting that anyone was considering seizing assets of ordinary Russians. I was suggesting that Russia might choose to seize the assets of non-russians, and that this move might be to keep that option open. This suggestion was based off of reporting that they are considering doing exactly that

I'm having trouble finding a well known and neutral outlet reporting on it, so [1] is the american propaganda outlet version, and [2] is the Russian propaganda outlet saying the same thing (which I would usually avoid linking to since they lie left right and center, but it does make the point that Russia really is threatening this).

[1] https://www.rferl.org/a/medvedev-end-diplomacy-russia/317250...

[2] https://tass.com/politics/1411915

if western investors are forced to own russian companies, it means they are forced to care about well being of russian companies. maybe this is supposed to make western investors lobby against sanctions.

I think yes, that, but also to keep the currency from the sale in Russia. If they allow the sale by a foreign entity, cash will be leave the country at a time when their banks are about to get cut off

This is madness. If they keep on this track, in about 20-30 years they'll become an Argentina.

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