“We were ready for this to happen.”
Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina in an interview with RBC statedHe said that since Russia has been under sanctions since 2014, ministry experts always evaluate the risk of sanctions.
“So when the big banks, for example, came under sanctions, they were already largely prepared for that to happen,” the regulator’s head said.
According to him, the financial sector received the first blow from the sanctions, but in general it was possible to maintain financial stability in the country.
According to the head of the Central Bank, the most painful sanctions were the disconnection from SWIFT and the freezing of foreign assets.But we managed to deal with them. Since there has been a threat of closure since 2014, the Bank of Russia has gradually created a national payment infrastructure.
As for the asset freeze, this was helped by the floating exchange rate and currency restrictions introduced in spring 2022. The head of the Central Bank called them “quite harsh”.
“We diversified our reserves and increased the share of yuan and gold,” Nabiullina said.
Sanction Destroyer
The head of the Central Bank stated that the structural restructuring of the economy in Russia is progressing quite rapidly. This is due to its market nature, a business that quickly adapts to new realities.
“If we talk about the financial sector, we have been able to respond to the main challenges, but there are also problems in the financial sector that have not been fully resolved, including cross-border payments,” the official emphasized.
Nabiullina also talked about how the Russian Federation managed to comply with sanctions restrictions, including the fact that Politico magazine called her “destroyer of the year.” According to the head of the Central Bank, it is difficult for him to comment on this “heading”.
“Of course, there is a temptation to think that we have had a very good year in 2022 and now we are, as they say, knee deep in the sea. But we must be prepared for increasing sanctions pressure,” Nabiullina emphasized.
Last week there were numerous expert assessments confirming the words of the head of the Central Bank about the situation in the country’s economy. So, Commissioner of the President of the Russian Federation for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs Boris Titov said that almost 60 percent of businessmen believe that the Russian economy is developing stably, and 40 percent of the entrepreneurs surveyed are expanding their business. This has been reported RIA News.
Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov at the meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects on December 21 aforementioned The country managed to maintain its export potential by:
“The first results of the year show that the Russian economy as a whole is adapting to sanctions pressure.”
Vladimir Putin too registeredIt was stated that despite the sanctions, Russian companies maintained their business rhythm and the country’s economy “went through the process of adapting to changing external conditions.”
Economy in wartime
On the day the interview with the Central Bank president was published, American billionaire Elon Musk also mentioned that a strong economy was needed to carry out military operations. On the social network
“Economic power is the basis for waging war,” he said in his post.
Sachs first commented on reports that the American F-35 fighter jet program had failed due to supply problems and overly expensive aircraft parts.
On December 19, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, at an expanded meeting of the ministry’s board of directors reported Since the beginning of the special military operation (SVO), the capacities of enterprises in the military-industrial complex have quadrupled. The Minister added that the production of artillery ammunition increased 17.5 times and the supply of weapons tripled. Shoigu also emphasized that despite the sanctions, Russia produces more advanced technology weapons than NATO countries.