Russian broker oversees sale of frozen securities worth $26.51 million

MOSCOW: The Russian broker organising an asset swap scheme to free up frozen funds for Russian and foreign investors said on Sunday it had managed to sell another 2.54 billion roubles ($26.51 million) worth of securities to non-resident investors, Reuters reported.

Broker Investitsionnaya Palata said this was in addition to 8.1 million roubles worth of securities that were bought out in the first round of the exchange, which ended on August 13.

“Thus, in total, blocked assets worth 10.64 billion roubles were redeemed during the two stages,” the broker said. Moscow has presented the plan as a way for both Russian and foreign investors to free up assets that have been blocked by Western sanctions and Russian countermeasures since the start of the war in Ukraine more than two years ago. The broker said it is considering a new redemption of securities after making changes to the swap procedure due to US sanctions imposed on the Russian National Settlement Depository.