20.02.2025, Moscow.
About 570 billion rubles of Russian investors’ funds blocked in the West managed to be returned in 2024, Central Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina said at the Cybersecurity in Finance forum on February 20.
“Last year, if I remember correctly, it is about 570 billion rubles of funds – frozen in the form of securities, coupons – were unfrozen,” she said.
The Central Bank Chairperson noted that unfreezing affected one and a half million people. According to Nabiullina, after the freezing of Russian funds, which should not have fallen under sanctions, the Central Bank together with the government was looking for different ways to release these funds. There is no single scheme, but there are certain possible mechanisms that the Central Bank supports.
After the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze about half of Russia’s foreign currency reserves for about 300 billion euros. More than 200 billion euros of them are in the EU, mainly in the accounts of the Belgian Euroclear – the European system for interbank transactions.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
