Russia’s international reserves increased by $12.5 billion in a week

Russia’s international reserves from March 10 to March 17 increased by $12.5 billion and amounted to $585.8 billion, should from the materials of the Central Bank.

“The volume of international reserves as of March 17 amounted to 585.8 billion US dollars, having increased over the week by 12.5 billion US dollars, or 2.2%, under the influence of a positive revaluation,” – says in the message from the regulator.

As of March 10, the volume of international reserves was $573.3 billion.

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 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.”