WASHINGTON, February 27. /TASS/. Western countries are still looking into the possibility of adopting more sanctions against the Central Bank of Russia, a senior US administration official said on Saturday.
"There are other measures too we could take against the central bank and you'll be hearing more about that later," he said. "And there may be other actions too, that are unveiled with respect to the Russian Central Bank, and we'll be finalizing those over the weekend."
"We're still finalizing this specific execution modality for the Central Bank sanctions. And it could involve both the flows that the Russian Central Bank is allowed to undertake, as well as the assets they have," he added.
The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada have agreed to impose restrictions on Russia’s Central Bank, the countries said in a joint statement earlier.
"We commit to imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions," the document says.
Reserves of the Russian Central Bank
The sanctions imposed by United States and their western allies will target all reserves of the Russian Central Bank, amounting to $630 billion, a senior US administration official told a special briefing.
When asked how many of the $630 billion are subjected to sanctions, the official replied "all."
"Right now, all $630 billion of Russia's foreign reserves could be used theoretically. They could sell those reserves and buy ruble, and that would offset some of the impact of our sanctions," he said.
"What this measure does, among other things, is it prevents Russia from transacting with Western banks <…> which it needs to do to actually intervene in foreign exchange markets. It must buy the ruble <…> to support its currency," the official continued.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Its objectives are demilitarization and denazification of the country.
After the announcement, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and some other countries announced they were imposing sanctions on Russian officials and individuals.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Its objectives are demilitarization and denazification of the country.
After the announcement, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and some other countries announced they were imposing sanctions on Russian officials and individuals.