WASHINGTON, February 27. /TASS/. The United States and other Western nations will collectively impose sanctions against the Central Bank of Russia to prevent it from using its reserves to support the Russian currency, a high-ranking US administration official said on Saturday.
"Leaders have committed to target the Russian Central Bank, the single most important financial institution in Russia," he said. "We are collectively planning to impose measures to ensure Russia cannot use its central bank reserves to support its currency and thereby undermine the impact of our sanctions."
"The 600 billion plus of Russia's foreign reserves is only powerful if [the Russian government] can use it," he said. "And without being able to buy the ruble from Western financial institutions <…> the central bank will lose the ability to offset the impact of our sanctions."
According to the official, under those circumstances the Russian ruble will fall even further, and inflation will spike.