The Central Bank named the most painful sanctions for the Russian economy. According to Central Bank Chairman Elvira Nabiullina, this is a freezing of the assets of private Russian investors and a disconnection from SWIFT, RBC reports.
She added, however, that large banks that were subject to restrictions “were largely prepared” for them. “Disconnection from SWIFT has been a threat since 2014, so we were building a national payment infrastructure,” Nabiullina explained, adding that the reserves were diversified, and the share of the yuan and gold was increased.
At the same time, “a very negative signal for all central banks” was the freezing of Central Bank reserves, since this is a violation of the basic principles of reserve security. “A very painful topic was the blocking and freezing of assets of private individuals – millions of people who were not subject to sanctions, but ended up with frozen assets,” explained the head of the Central Bank.
She emphasized that the regulator was helped by the “floating exchange rate and foreign exchange restrictions” adopted in the spring of 2022. She admitted that international payments are still a problem, but the authorities are trying to solve it.
Nabiullina did not rule out tightening anti-Russian sanctions and emphasized that we must be prepared for this.
Let us remind you that due to sanctions, about $300 billion of Russian reserves were frozen. The European Union is currently discussing the confiscation of frozen Russian assets and their transfer to Ukraine.
Source: Rosbalt
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