Bloomberg: the USA and the UK consider additional sanctions against Russia for ‘use of chemical weapons’
Evgeny Kogan: ‘We were told to expect additional sanctions against certain oligarchs. I think the possibility is quite high. How dangerous would it be for our economy? It may be unpleasant for the oligarchs themselves and their companies, and can lead to a short-term plunge. Would it be terrible? No, just unpleasant. Does it raise the toxicity of Russian capital as a whole, even the sanction-free capital? Unfortunately, it does. We must also note the sanctions on Russian sovereign debt. There is internal debt, external debt, new debt issuances, old debt issuances. The thing is, if American investors are banned from holding old Russian debt issuances, especially those for internal debt, it will be a severe blow: BlackRock holds trillions of rubles in federal loan obligations (OFZ). I don’t think this is going to happen. External debt? I doubt that too. In today’s conditions, given the ten-year and twenty-year obligations yield, it would bring further destabilization to world markets, and they won’t shoot themselves in the leg. How about sanctions against the new issuances of Russian debt? I consider it more likely, but not any time soon either. This is not a short-term thing; this process is lasting and quite painful for Russia. That’s how I think. I mean, at the moment it’s not lethal, it’s almost sparing. Strategically, they will cut us out of modern technologies and trends, doing everything in their power to slow Russia’s economy down’.
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