One of the authoritative portals Axios, citing sources in the US Senate, said that a number of senators are in favor of freezing Russia's gold reserves. It is about 132 billion dollars. This initiative is conducted jointly with the US Treasury Department.
The initiative is supported by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who will meet with Senators John Cornin (Texas) Angus King (Island), Bill Hagerty (Tennessee) and Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire) to discuss the bill.
Last week, Congress and the US Treasury worked on the document. It is planned to be approved by Congress this week.
Which caused the frost
First of all, it is necessary to block opportunities for money laundering in unregulated markets. The Kremlin has been accumulating these funds in gold since 2014. When the ruble falls, the Bank of Russia regularly buys gold, and now the situation is the same.
It should be noted that the sanctions apply to all transactions involving the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance and the National Security Fund, including gold. But they can restrict the sale of gold transferred to another bank - any non-sanctioned.
The main purpose of the law on gold reserves of the Russian Federation
The new law will close this loophole and apply secondary sanctions to organizations trading in gold of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
Senator King noted that gold reserves are about ¼ of Russia's financial reserves. The overall challenge is to prevent the monetization of gold. But… as you know, Elvira Nabiullina resigned twice, she was not released.
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