As an American, why am I sanctioned by Robinhood?

Question

I am locked out of my Russian ETFs. I received the following email from Robinhood:An important update about securities you hold Hi xxxx, We wanted to let you know that our execution venues have informed us that they will stop supporting buy or sell orders on certain Russian securities that you hold, effective as of market close today, March 1, 2022 at 4:00 pm ET. Why is this happening? In response to Russia&rsquo;s attack on Ukraine, the US Treasury has announced economic sanctions to disconnect Russia from global economic access, including restricting access to capital. Below is a list of securities that you will no longer be able to buy or sell:GZPFY LUKOY NILSY OAOFY OGZPY ROSYY RSHYY SBRCY SGTPY SGTZY Please note that this list is not exhaustive and is subject to change based on government action, updates from stock exchanges, or changes at our execution venues. Do I need to take action? Your shares will continue to be held at Robinhood, but you won't be able to buy or sell until further notice. This is a rapidly evolving situation and we are here to support you. - The Robinhood Team

vba616 · Accepted Answer

Many entities in the west own vast amounts of Russian assets that have been frozen. Particularly energy companies, have billions and billions of dollars' worth of shares of Russian companies. They probably have better lobbyists than anyone using Robinhood.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/shell-faces-pressure-over-gaz...
For now, they're writing it off, valuing at zero, it sounds like. It's impossible to sell, so they have to assume it's completely worthless.
If this never ends, at some point it amounts to giving everything in Russia, to Russia, for free.
A famous quote from Warren Buffett that every investor should know: "Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years."

crate_barre · Answer

That&rsquo;s &hellip; awful. What if you put in a large part of your funds into one of these stocks last week? Then your assets are just frozen as if you are Russian?

MattGaiser · Answer

At least the selling part is from Russia.https://www.reuters.com/business/russia-impose-temporary-cur...

As an American, why am I sanctioned by Robinhood?

That’s … awful. What if you put in a large part of your funds into one of these stocks last week? Then your assets are just frozen as if you are Russian?

At least the selling part is from Russia.
https://www.reuters.com/business/russia-impose-temporary-cur...