The Norwegian Ministry of Finance ordered the suspension of all transactions in Russian assets owned by the fund, which is managed by the central bank, shortly after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in February 2022, and said at the time that the ultimate goal was to liquidate its investments.
The size is Norwegian sovereign wealth fund With $1.8 trillion, it is the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, as it owns 1.5 percent of the shares of listed companies globally.
The fund is still effectively prohibited from exiting Russian assets because it is not allowed to sell them to counterpart funds subject to sanctions from the United States or the European Union.
While this means that it is not possible to develop a general exit plan, the fund should now be allowed to sell assets it holds in Russia if opportunities arise, the central bank said in a letter to the Finance Ministry dated August 25 and published on Wednesday.
“Sanctions against Russia and countermeasures by the Russian authorities have escalated further in 2024,” the bank said in the letter, adding that “opportunities to sell Russian bonds are currently very limited.”
Moscow considers sanctions by the United States and the European Union a form of economic warfare, and says that calls to divest from Russian assets are hostile acts on the part of unfriendly countries.
Philip Gabonia, deputy governor of the Russian Central Bank, told Reuters that any decision to sell assets inside Russia requires permission from Moscow, which is only granted for “convincing reasons.”
The Norwegian Fund’s holdings in Russia were estimated at about three billion dollars at the end of 2021, but the value declined sharply after the devaluation of Russian assets globally since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
