The Ministry of Finance announced the freezing of $ 300 billion of gold and foreign exchange reserves due to sanctions Russia , due to restrictive measures, lost access to $ 300 billion of its reserves; Western countries are also trying to put pressure on

RUSSIA, due to US sanctions , EU countries and other states, has lost access to almost half of its gold and foreign exchange reserves, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

“We have a total amount of reserves of about $640 billion, about $300 billion of reserves are now in a state in which we cannot use them,” he said on the air of the Russia 1 channel. Part of the reserves, including the National Welfare Fund, was frozen, the minister said.

In addition, he added, Western countries are trying to put pressure on CHINA to limit Russia's access to yuan reserves. “I think that our partnership with China will nevertheless allow us to maintain the cooperation that we have achieved,” Siluanov expressed hope.

The minister added that due to restrictive measures, Russia had problems with the fulfillment of debt obligations. “It seems to me that it is absolutely fair when we say that we do not refuse to fulfill state obligations, we will pay them in rubles until the moment when our gold and foreign exchange reserves are unfrozen,” he added (quoted by RIA Novosti).