YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said on Thursday the bank was not part of the talks on lifting sanctions or a freeze on Russia’s foreign currency reserves.
“The central bank does not participate in such negotiations, I am not aware of this,” she said in response to the question of whether the issue of lifting sanctions on Russia is being discussed as part of a possible peace deal.
At the beginning of 2022, Russia’s central bank held around $207 billion in euro assets, $67 billion in U.S. dollar assets and $37 billion in British pound assets.
In June of last year, the Group of Seven and the EU agreed to use interest earned from the frozen Russian assets to support a $50 billion loan for Ukraine. Russia has vowed legal action.
(Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
