Washington expects the ruble to plunge after it loses the regulator’s support
The EU is planning to freeze the assets of Russia’s Central Bank, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday, announcing a new round of sanctions against Moscow amid the ongoing military operation in Ukraine.
“We will paralyze the assets of Russia’s Central Bank. This will freeze its transactions. It will make it impossible for the Central Bank to liquidate assets,” she tweeted.
The head of the EC will offer the measure along with a number of other restrictions on Russia for consideration to the leaders of EU countries. According to the official, all measures are created by the EU in coordination with the US, UK, and Canada. In a joint statement, the allies said they “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 sanctions against the Russian Central Bank could target its international reserves, amounting to around $643.2 billion as of February 18. Reserves surged $3.6 billion in the previous week, but the data is released with a one-week delay, and it is hard to tell for now how the military operation in Ukraine affected the volume.
Second, we will paralyse the assets of Russia’s central bank.
This will freeze its transactions.
And it will make it impossible for the Central Bank to liquidate its assets. pic.twitter.com/8H9eWkNCW9