The possible consequences of blocking Russia's gold reserve

Marcel Salikhov, President of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Lenta.ru on the possible consequences of blocking Russia's gold reserves.

US senators, together with the US Treasury Department, will discuss a bill to block Russia's gold reserves in the amount of about $132 billion.

“The main fears associated with this bill are that in this way the Central Bank will not be able to sell gold and, accordingly, convert it into currency. But in general, even without this law, the Central Bank's ability to sell gold is rather limited: it is impossible to sell such volumes on the open market. So this is a kind of formalization of the process in which secondary sanctions can be introduced against buyers of Russian gold,” Salikhov suggested.

The economist added that at the moment such operations are not being carried out, therefore, the new bill is unlikely to affect the current situation and the ruble exchange rate. Nevertheless, it can lead to rather unpleasant consequences for the Russian economy in the long term.