Russia’s international reserves fell by $2.3 billion over the week

Russia’s international reserves from February 24 to March 3 decreased by $2.3 billion and amounted to $578.4 billion, follows from the data on the website of the Bank of Russia.

“The volume of international reserves as of March 3 amounted to 578.4 billion US dollars, having decreased over the week by 2.3 billion US dollars, or 0.4%, due to negative revaluation, as well as operations carried out under the fiscal rule,” — says in the message from the regulator.

On February 24, the international reserves of the Russian Federation amounted to $580.7 billion, and on February 17 – $582.1 billion. In February, they decreased by 3.82%, clarified regulator. As of March 1, Russia’s international reserves amounted to $574.247 billion against $597.035 billion as of February 1.

International reserves are at the disposal of the Central Bank and the Russian government, they are highly liquid assets. International reserves are made up of foreign currency assets, monetary gold, as well as special drawing rights, a reserve position in the IMF and other reserve assets.

On November 30, 2022, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the West had blocked 300 billion euros in the reserves of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Then she suggested create an investment fund from these funds, and use the profit for compensation payments to Ukraine. In February, a senior European source informed “RIA Novosti” that the EU is considering the possibility of investing the assets of the Central Bank.

In early January, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova statedthat the Russian side is considering all existing legal mechanisms for returning access to its frozen assets and is ready, if necessary, to apply separate “compensatory measures”.

In the Kremlin called freezing Russian assets by theft. At the end of October last year, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that the blocking of assets abroad is contrary to international law. He noted that Russia is limited in its actions to combat such a decision, but the Russian authorities will not “sit idly by.”