The confiscation of gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Russia, which will begin in the United States as part of the law on assistance to Ukraine, will not affect financial stability in Russia. The head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, announced this on Friday, writes The Moscow Times.
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According to her, all operations with frozen reserves – about $300 billion – have long been stopped.
“We have enough reserves, not affected by sanctions, and they are sufficient to eliminate risks to financial stability,” she says.
In the first days of Russia’s full-scale war with Ukraine, the United States, the European Union and Great Britain imposed sanctions against the Russian Central Bank, the Russian Ministry of Finance and the National Welfare Fund. As a result, about half of the $600 billion of securities and assets placed in Western countries and their currencies was blocked.
Only Chinese yuan worth about $100 billion and gold reserves of 2 are still available to the Central Bank of Russia. 5 thousand tons of bullion in storage facilities on Russian territory, the publication writes.
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, April 24, signed a $61 billion aid law for Ukraine, which, among other things, allows the American administration to confiscate and send in support of Ukraine, part of Russia's frozen reserves.
We are talking about approximately $6 billion that the Russian Central Bank kept in the United States before the start of the big war. The bulk of the amount – about $200 billion – is blocked in Europe.
If the confiscation takes place, the Kremlin intends to appeal this decision in the courts.
Reuters sources familiar with the position of the Central Bank and the Russian government said in January that the Russian authorities have “already said goodbye” to the reserves and are aware that they have no real opportunity to prevent the confiscation.
