Why is Russia dumping it's US Treasury holdings?

[alwaysinasnit]

https://wolfstreet.com/2018/07/17/russia-dumped-most-all-its-us-treasury-holdings-disappeared-from-list/

The “grand total” of US Treasury bonds, notes, and bills held by official foreign investors (central banks, governments, etc.) and non-official foreign investors rose by $44.6 billion to $6.17 trillion at the end of May, according to the Treasury Department’s TIC data released Tuesday afternoon. This is in the middle of the range of the past 12 months.

But Russia stands out by its sudden absence.

Russia was never a large holder of US Treasuries, compared to China and Japan. In March it was in 16th place with $96.1 billion in Treasury holdings. In April, it liquidated $47.4 billion of its holdings, and ended the month with $48.7 billion. That was down 69% from May 2013 ($153 billion). It knocked Russia into 22nd place behind the UAE and Thailand.

And in May, Russia liquidated more of its holdings and disappeared entirely from the TIC’s list of the 33 largest foreign holders of Treasuries. The smallest one on the list was Chile, with $30.2 billion. Russia’s holdings fell below that amount.

So we go to the TIC list of all countries that hold US Treasuries, and find that Russia’s holdings have plunged to $14.9 billion:

Russia’s holdings have plunged to $14.9 billion:

(graph available at link above)

[Scoopster]

1. They know what's coming.

They're dumping it because they know the economic shitstorm is coming, and that the value of those bonds is gonna plummet big time.

[DBoon]

5. big interest rate increase

as a response to inflatio

[Achilleaze]

6. Part of their plan to weaken America

and the republicans are playing right along with them

[unc70]

2. Russia probably needed the cash

They are broke because of the sanctions.

[Amishman]

7. This, they just had to cancel their 5th gen fighter program

That jet program was highly publicized and it's cancellation a major embarrassment. They're close to broke.

Oil prices have been hurting them ever since US shale output soared, and the recent decision by OPEC to raise production really hurts Russia

[beachbum bob]

3. China not going to take trumps trade tariff bullshit too much longer and their

Play would be to dump US treasuries forcing a run up in the interest rate and US market chaos. So putin may have some inside info on this happening and dumping holdings while they can. The big picture has always been to destroy the American empire.

[alwaysinasnit]

4. Makes sense.

This would definitely play into Putin's fantasy of bringing the US to it's knees without ever having fired a single shot.

[beachbum bob]

9. The long game is to mess America up so much that the US dollar is no

longer the worlds reserve currency and then all hell breaks out as the dollar and markets crash and Americans wake up to a destroyed country without ever firing a shot.

The dream of putin and china

Trump is the guy can make it happen

[alwaysinasnit]

10. I agree. We might be experiencing the perfect storm to make that happen.

[beachbum bob]

11. This is why November 2018 is our do or die time.

Each one of us gotta do our part.

[sdfernando]

8. Need to liquidate before they cyber-attack our banking system

bring the US to its knees. The treasury bonds will be worthless, leaving not only the US destitute but also doing significant damage to other big world economies like, China and Japan, as well as others.

[kentuck]

12. Getting their money out before assets frozen?

Is it possible to freeze treasury notes? I would think so.

[alwaysinasnit]

13. I think there may be a distinction between freezing sovereign funds/assets and those of

individuals, businesses, and officials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis