“But in the end, less than a third of this amount was arrested, and the rest was simply not found.”
So instead of the article suggesting “looting” as you say, it actually suggests that the Russian banks successfully either moved or hid the assets before they could be frozen.
It is possible that they moved some of it. For sure they didn't move much gold. We know from other events that it's extremely time consuming for a country to move their gold reserves from one bank to another. (In general, the "fiduciaries" don't like to return it to the owners.)
Here is some background on this:
The Truth About Bundesbank Repatriation Of Gold From US
If you read the article you will see it took years for the German central bank to recover a small percent of their total Gold holdings from the USA and France, and supposedly all three were the best of friends at the time.
Also, if the Russians moved their assets out of the banks between 22 January 2022 (the date of the last public accounting of the reserves) and the imposition of sanctions on 24 Feb 2022 when they (supposedly) "FROZE" all their reserves) -- then the banks would clearly *know that* and the assets would not be missing, they would merely have been removed.
Accounts of the frozen assets would merely be updated to accurately reflect the real numbers. No need to be secretive or coy about any of it.
But that's not what's happening, is it?
The morons in the Biden administration screwed the pooch on this. Along with locking Russia out of the SWIFT mechanism. Many other countries understood in an instant that these supposed neutral "mechanisms" and "international organizations" are not in any way neutral, but as available to be weaponized at the exclusive whim of the USA. Thus, they are not safe mechanisms to rely on.
That goes for the practice of leaving reserves in foreign banks, that goes for relying on the SWIFT (or even more pedestrian Visa Card system, which Russia was also locked out of). Countrires that are somewhat non-aligned like India and Brazil and even down to places like Malaysia and Indonesia took a very different message from the weaponization of these formerly neutral "mechanisms".
The end result is a much deeper interest in alternatives.
And of course, the ultimate thing that an alternative will be devised for is the US dollar, which has the enviable and valuable role of exclusive reserve currency of the world. (Which allows us to print money and use it to buy stuff (especially oil) abroad.)
That's ending because of Biden and his economic team's moronic decisions. Yellin, Blinken, Susan Rice, and whoever else was involved in this fiasco should all be tarred and feathered. It was incredibly stupid and self-destructive.
And that's noot even talking about the energy crisis in Europe they created with the gas and oil sanctions against Russia, which we are just starting to see the full disaster in Europe unfolding as a result of.