The Big Apple’s massive $88 billion pension fund for municipal employees is dumping its Russian assets as the backlash against the Kremlin’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine continues to grow.
The move by the NYC Employees’ Retirement System, announced Thursday, will affect assets that were valued at $31 million on Feb. 25 — before the United States, United Kingdom and European Union imposed crippling sanctions on Russia’s major financial institutions and the country’s central bank.
And it comes two days after the city pension fund that covers police officers voted to divest $42 million in Russian-linked assets.
It’s not clear what the Russian investments are worth now — if they’re worth anything at all. Russian officials have ordered their major financial markets to remain closed as they try to head off a crash. Meanwhile, the value of the country’s currency, the ruble, has also collapsed.
Mayor Eric Adams said that he supports the decision to divest the pension fund for municipal employees from Russian assets. Stefan Jeremiah
Russian tanks and military vehicles in the Kyiv region of Ukraine on March 3, 2022. via REUTERS“Freedom cannot be denied, here or anywhere,” said Mayor Eric Adams in a statement. “That’s why I stand in support of efforts to divest the city’s pension funds from Russian assets in light of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine — an unprovoked and unjustified war.”
The two major unions covered by NYCERS — AFSCME District Council 37 and Teamsters Local 237 — also endorsed the move.
“Putin’s Russia has no place in our investment portfolio. We support the people of Ukraine,” said Teamsters chief Gregory Floyd.
