MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. The Bank of Russia hopes that the mechanism for exchanging frozen assets of investors will begin to work in the near future, the regulator’s Governor Elvira Nabiullina told reporters.

"We anticipate the adoption of regulatory documents, which we think will happen in the near future. We believe that the system we have created will allow us to defend the rights of small retail investors," she said.

Nabiullina further stated that this system is voluntary not only for Russian investors, but also for foreign players with funds in type C accounts.

Previously, it was reported that the draft presidential decree being developed by the government in collaboration with the Bank of Russia allows for the purchase of blocked securities from Russian investors using money from type C accounts. According to Russian Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, more than 3.5 mln Russian residents have frozen assets worth 1.5 trillion rubles ($16.3 bln). Accounts worth around 100 bln rubles ($1.08 bln) are expected to be unblocked at the first stage.