Canada continues to take action in opposing the Russian Federation’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Russia has violated Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence.
Today, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, announced that, effective immediately, all Canadian financial institutions are prohibited from engaging in any transaction with the Russian Central Bank. In addition, Canada is imposing an asset freeze and a dealings prohibition on Russian sovereign wealth funds. This follows the Prime Minister’s February 26, 2022 joint statement with the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States to implement further restrictive economic measures on Russia.
Banks in countries implementing this sanction are barred from transacting with the Russian Central Bank in any manner, which will prevent Russia from deploying its international currency reserves. By eliminating the Russian Central Bank’s ability to convert foreign denominated reserves, Russia’s use of these assets to manage its economy, buffer its financial system, and finance its invasion of Ukraine will become severely restricted.
Honourable Freeland said:
“Canada and its allies continue to take concerted action to ensure that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be a strategic failure. This has never been done before at this scale – today we are taking a historic step by directly censuring Russia’s central bank. Canada is firmly on the side of the heroic resistance of the people of Ukraine and we will continue to take further action to ensure President Putin does not succeed.”
Credit: Canada Department of Finance
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