WASHINGTON, March 8. /TASS/. A group of US senators introduced a bill to the US Congress that implies imposition of secondary sanctions against people involved in operations with gold from the Russian Central Bank reserve, according to website of John Cornyn (R-TX), a co-author of the initiative.
"Russia has taken a page out of Venezuela’s book by exploiting a loophole in current sanctions [sanctions against Russian Central Bank - TASS] that allows them to launder money through the purchase and sale of gold," the lawmaker says, according to the press release.
"Russia’s massive gold supply is one of the few remaining assets that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can use to keep his country’s economy from falling even further. By sanctioning these reserves, we will further isolate Russia from the world’s economy and increase the difficulty of Putin’s increasingly-costly military campaign," says Angus King (I-ME), who also co-authored the bill.
According to Axios, the lawmakers want to include their initiative to the budget legislation, which the Senate expects to pass by Friday.
On February 24, Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request for assistance from Donbass People’s Republics. He underscored that Russia does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territories. After that, the US, the EU, the UK and a number of other states announced sanctions against Russian citizens and companies. In particular, sanctions were imposed against the Central Bank of Russia. According to Washington, these sanctions were imposed so that the Russian regulator could not use its currency reserves to support the Russian ruble.