As Russia started its warfare towards Ukraine in late February, the central banks of the U.S., Japan, U.Okay., European Union and others froze greater than $300 billion of Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves. These unprecedented actions helped undermine the ruble, which has since recovered because of decreased demand for onerous foreign money ensuing from the isolation of the Russian financial system.
Regrettably, these and different vital Western sanctions have achieved little to restrain Russian aggression. Certainly, Russia’s brutal warfare towards Ukraine has resulted in widespread warfare crimes, the deliberate destruction and depopulation of Ukrainian cities, the displacement of some 11 million Ukrainians from their houses, and the deaths of many thousand Ukrainian civilians. In consequence, the West not too long ago has intensified its stress on Moscow and is searching for new methods to compel Moscow to desist. On this context, Russia’s huge hard-currency reserves now frozen in Western accounts are an important asset that can be utilized to guard Ukraine and its sovereignty.
