RIO DE JANEIRO, February 27. /TASS/. US Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen admits the possibility of risks for the dollar during the confiscation of frozen Russian assets, but considers them unlikely.
"With respect to financial stability, I suppose a risk would arise if there were a massive shift away from currencies," Yellen said at a press conference in the Brazilian city of San Paolo ahead of the meeting of finance ministers and heads of central banks of G20 countries.
When answering a question about possible risks to the financial stability in case of confiscation of seized Russian assets, she said that she finds it "extremely unlikely, especially given the uniqueness of this situation."
According to Yellen, the US and its partners are "representing half the global economy and all of the currencies that really have the capacity at this point to serve as reserve currencies."
"Realistically, there are not alternatives to the dollar, euro, yen, so I'm not I'm not too worried about that," the Secretary of the Treasury said.
"With respect to where we go with this, there are risks, the financial stability issue is a risk. And we're working to evaluate these risks and to outline possible options for consideration," she concluded.
On November 8, 2023, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs James O'Brien argued that the collective West will not give the frozen assets worth about $300 bln back to Russia until Moscow pays for the special military operation in Ukraine.
Chairman of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina stressed on the same day that the confiscation and freezing of Russian assets by the West would "have, as a precedent, negative consequences for the overall development of the global financial system."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified that Moscow intends to challenge Western steps of this kind. As he explained, this will entail "very serious judicial and legal costs for those who make such decisions and who take advantage of such decisions." Russia will begin to work out response measures that are unlikely to be tit for tat ones, the Kremlin official added.
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, warned in early December 2023 about the potential risks to global financial stability and monetary policy if the West confiscates Russian assets frozen abroad after the start of the special military operation. She stressed that the use of these holdings would have to be based on an international basis. According to her, it is necessary to very carefully consider what the risks could be for monetary policy and financial stability.