France freezes assets of the Russian Central Bank

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - France on Monday boosted its sanctions against Moscow on the fifth day of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The intensified economic and financial sanctions include the freezing of Russian Central Bank assets and cutting off of certain banks from the SWIFT network, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire declared.

All of the bank's assets were frozen on Sunday night in a move that involved "very significant sums amounting to tens of billions of euros," Le Maire told reporters in Paris following a high-level defense council meeting.

It will deplete the foreign exchange reserves of the central bank and its ability to finance Russian trade, he said. The immediate effects of this are already visible with the depreciation of the Russian ruble, interest rates, and the financial market, he added. France has also cut off access to certain Russian banks from SWIFT.

Following the European sanctions announced on Sunday, Feb 27, that excluded many Russian banks from the Swift interbank platform to punish Moscow for launching a war against Ukraine, the Russian ruble crashed massively against the dollar and euro. The U.S. and Japan also adopted similar sanctions against the Central bank.

Widening the sanctions against those Russian billionaires close to the Kremlin, Le Maire informed that his ministry will identify their assets in France and seize them. "We are drawing the complete inventory of financial assets, real estate, yachts, luxury vehicles(...) We will equip ourselves with the legal means to seize all of these assets," he said.