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Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced new emergency measures to dampen the impact of sanctions from the West amid the Ukraine crisis, media reports said.
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President Putin has banned foreign exchange loans and money transfers by Russians outside the country.
Additionally, the president has enacted a new law ordering exporting companies to sell 80% of their foreign exchange revenues, made since the start of the year, on the market.
Separately, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “the economic reality has considerably changed. These are heavy sanctions, they are problematic, but Russia has the potential to offset the harm.
“Russia has been making plans for quite a long time for possible sanctions, including the most severe ones. There are response plans, they were developed and are being implemented as problems appear.”
Other measures taken by Russia include raising the key interest rate to 20% per annum from 9.5%.
The sanctions from the West have increased the ruble exchange rate and limited Russia’s ability to use gold and foreign currency reserves, Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina said in a statement.
Currently, the value of the ruble against the dollar is estimated to be around a third of its level in 2014.
Deprecating ruble value will result in increased inflation in Russia and rising interest rates will directly impact the cost of borrowing for Russian consumers and companies.
The latest sanctions from the US and its allies target the Bank of Russia, Russia’s national wealth fund and the Russian Ministry of Finance.
Earlier, the West agreed to block leading Russian banks from SWIFT, the international payments messaging system.
