An article by Benn Steil and Benjamin Della Rocca in Foreign Affairs (March 21) claimed that
their "research suggests that Russia may have stashed tens of billions of dollars in reserve
assets in opaque offshore accounts, where it holds dollar-denominated securities beyond the
reach of international sanctions and asset freezes". According to them indications of this were
discernible across two different periods—one in mid-2018 and the other late last year, as Russia
built up troops on the Ukrainian border— that Russia may have secluded up to $80 billion in
Treasury securities offshore. It stated that Russia’s total offshore dollar holdings could be
higher still and, alluding to China, that Russia may have moved some of its dollars with help
from a foreign government. The article claimed "China was almost certainly behind the 2014
surge. Throughout that year, the assets of its central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC),
rose in tandem with Belgian Treasury holdings. The PBOC was evidently building up its war
chest of dollar reserves and storing them in Treasuries, held through Euroclear. In 2021,
however, the PBOC’s reserves stayed flat, indicating a different source for the sudden rise in
Belgium’s holdings." It also said "The Russian central bank and sovereign wealth fund hold an
estimated $140 billion in Chinese bonds—about four times the total in early 2018. Data from
June 2021 also show China holding 14.2 percent of Russia’s foreign reserves, the largest share
of any country. "
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