Russia must in one way or another contribute to the financing of Ukraine’s reconstruction, but a number of decisions still need to be made in order to use Russia’s frozen gold and foreign exchange reserves for these purposes.

This was stated by US Treasury Secretary Janet Ellen, answering questions about the possibility of directing part of the frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine, according to Voice of America.

“Obviously, there is an expectation that Russia will help in one way or another to partially provide for the reconstruction of Ukraine, and we must achieve this,” she said, noting that “the cost of rebuilding Ukraine will be huge.”

Ellen reminded that under the sanctions regime, the United States and European countries have frozen a significant part of Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves, the total amount of which exceeds $ 600 billion.

At the same time, Ellen declined to disclose details about the possible use of funds and suggested that a separate decision from the US Congress may be needed in this area.

She also stressed the importance of international coordination in this area.

Ellen noted that the coalition in support of Ukraine has more than 30 countries, which account for more than half of the world economy, whose convertible currencies are most widely used and where the most modern technologies are produced.

As reported, after the start of a full-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine, Western countries froze about half of Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves totaling about $ 300 billion.

Because of this, Russian President Vladimir Putin was forced to introduce the mandatory sale of 80% of foreign exchange earnings by exporters. In addition, the Central Bank banned the sale of currency to Russians and imposed a number of other restrictions on the foreign exchange market. Джерело: https://biz.censor.net/n3335939

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