MOSCOW, February 16Confiscation of assets of the Bank of Russia will undermine the financial system of the whole world and will become a negative signal for other Central banks, said the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, at a press conference on the key rate.
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“In international law, this (protection of reserves — Ed.) is one of the key basic principles of immunity of the assets of Central banks from coercive collection measures, and this immunity ensures the stability of the international finance system,” Nabiullina noted.
According to her, if assets are confiscated, this will lead to a gradual erosion of the system of international finance and will worsen the position of reserve currencies.
Nabiullina added that the Central Bank will take measures to protect Russia's interests.
After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze almost half of Russia's foreign exchange reserves amounting to approximately 300 billion euros. About 200 billion are in the European Union. In October 2023, it reported that it had earned around three billion euros in interest from investing assets.
Late last year, the European Commission proposed accumulating windfalls generated in this way in separate accounts pending further proposals. It is assumed that this money can be transferred to Ukraine.
Washington has not yet made a decision on the issue of confiscating the reserves of the Central Bank and transferring them to Kiev, but they are exploring such an option within the G7.
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