A treasury official on Bloomers says Russian firms are finding it harder to raise funds and they may see $100bn exit from investors. The official says that the US is ready to slap more sanctions on Russia and are considering freezing assets of companies in the energy, finance and mining sectors. There’s unlikely to be any action without cooperation with Europe and the G7.
The US treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence is off to visit Germany, France and the UK starting tomorrow where he’ll chew the fat over further action against Russia.
We should take some these comments in the context of the usual US vs Russia verbal ping pong. I still get the feeling that Europe is still holding back for fear of Russia switching off the gas taps. While that would hurt Russia just as much it’s something the fragile European recovery doesn’t need right now.
