Putin Signs Order to Seize Bank Deposits as Default Looms – Trustnodes

Both Reuters and BBC, citing Russian state TV, report the Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a new law that allows him to seize the bank deposits of Russians.

Reuters limits this to “the bank accounts of officials if the sum of the deposits exceeded their declared incomes over three years and was shown to be illegal.”

However it is not clear what the law says exactly or indeed whether any bank deposits are safe in Russia as markets say the country is on the brink of default.

Cost of insuring against Russia default, March 2022
Cost of insuring against Russia default, March 2022

The cost of insuring against a Russia default has gone ballistic, up more than 10x since the beginning of the year from 100 to now close to 1,700.

This signals that there’s a 69% chance Russia will default, a very first for a country of this size in decades.

Such event might trigger hyperinflation with a number of oil companies pulling out of Russia, including Exxon Mobile, BP, Shell and Equinor among others.

This could reduce oil and gas production in the country while defense costs will significantly rise due to the 50% crash in the Russian ruble within two weeks.

As an asset outside the banking system and national fiat, bitcoin would be a necessary hedge in these sort of circumstances as it is a bearer asset that you can’t seize if it is self-custodied or held outside the country.

Crypto awareness may well rise in Russia therefore as they face an economic collapse.

Source: https://www.trustnodes.com/2022/03/07/putin-signs-order-to-seize-bank-deposits-as-default-looms