The government will fulfill all obligations to foreign currency depositors, even if the West imposes sanctions, including disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT international interbank system and banning dollar transactions with domestic banks, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters.
“It is clear that we will provide all deposits here, all settlements between our depositors, including foreign exchange ones, in these banks. [против которых введут санкции]. Actually, we have enough foreign exchange liquidity, thank God, and there are also enough foreign exchange reserves,” he said, noting that sanctions against Russian credit institutions are “generally unpleasant.”
The minister added that such measures would be an “acceptable option” for the West if it wants to spoil the Russians. However, although the country will feel the impact of restrictions, it will not be “fatal” for the economy and financial system.
Speaking about the risk of Russia being disconnected from SWIFT, Siluanov said that according to the latest information, Western countries themselves understand the “absurdity” of this measure, since they themselves will suffer because of it. “If this measure is introduced, we will move on to other possibilities for transmitting information about financial transfers, whether it be SPFS (Bank of Russia Financial Message Transmission System – Ed.), or teletypes, or carrying payments in suitcases, relatively speaking,” said the minister, specifying that he exaggerates.
Siluanov recalled that the Western states themselves talk about Russia having a financial shield in the form of gold and foreign exchange reserves, a low level of public debt, a budget surplus and rules. “Thank God, there is such a wall, a barrier to sanctions in Russia,” summed up the head of the Ministry of Finance.
On January 12, a bill appeared on the website of the US Senate, which proposed in the event of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to introduce against the first sanction. In particular, the document provided for restrictions on at least three of the 12 specified Russian financial institutions – Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, VEB.RF, RDIF, Moscow Credit Bank, Alfa-Bank, Rosselkhozbank, Otkritie Bank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank, Transcapitalbank. In addition, European and American lawmakers have proposed disconnecting Russia from SWIFT, blocking its trade chains, banning the export of products from various industries, and restricting access to international financial markets. At the same time, Moscow has said many times that it is not going to attack Ukraine, and even the thought of this is unacceptable to it.