Finance ministry chief: Russia stripped of access to half of its gold and foreign exchange reserves
Russia has lost access to half of its international reserves because of sanctions against its central bank.
This was announced by Anton Siluanov, head of the Russian Finance Ministry, Meduza reports.
"We have a total of about $640 billion in reserves, about $300 billion in reserves is now in a position where we cannot use them," the official said.
He added that until this money is unfrozen, Russia will pay debts to "unfriendly countries" in roubles.
As a reminder:
On 27 February, the European Union introduced a new package of economic sanctions against the aggressor in the war. Among other things, they included freezing operations related to the management of the Russian central bank's reserves.
In other words, Russia was deprived of a significant part of its "financial cushion": the RF Central Bank will not be able to sell its foreign currency assets placed in accounts with European banks to save the rouble from devaluation.
The very next day, the US, Japan, the UK and even traditionally neutral Switzerland joined the EU's harsh sanctions.
