Russian Central Bank Ready to Discuss Settling in Special Bonds With Firms Leaving Russia

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's Central Bank is ready to discuss the option of settling with foreign companies leaving Russia using its special bonds instead of currency, the bank's governor, Elvira Nabiullina, said on Thursday during her speech in parliament.

In the course of Nabiulina's speech, a representative of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party proposed paying foreign companies that are selling their assets in Russia in special bonds of the Central Bank that would equal the bank's assets frozen abroad.

"In theory this initiative can be reviewed as one of the measures to protect the Russian assets frozen abroad... [We] will be ready to discuss this issue in detail, we are interested in seeking and studying various options of solving the problem of frozen assets," Nabiulina said.

Western countries have frozen Russia's foreign currency reserves and halted international payments from Russian banks as part of sanctions introduced against Moscow after it launched a military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. In October, EU leaders instructed the European Commission to prepare proposals on the use of Russia's frozen assets to finance the restoration of Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly said that attempts to confiscate frozen Russian assets are an expropriation of property and a violation of international law. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told Sputnik that Russia will do everything possible to return the seized assets, given their illegal seizure.