50pc of Russian foreign exchange reserves frozen

KABUL (Pajhwok): Fifty percent of the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Bank of Russia have been blocked as a result of sanctions.

“We have a total amount of reserves of about $640 billion. Currently we cannot use about $300 billion of these reserves,” the Russian finance minister said in an interview.

Anton Siluanov told Rossiya 1 TV channel that some of the Russian foreign exchange reserves were in the Chinese currency.

He alleged Western countries were mounting pressure on China to cut trade with sanctions-hit Russia.

Given cordial bilateral relations, Siluanov hoped, China would allow Russia to increase to increase its yuan foreign exchange reserves.

PAN Monitor/mud

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