Society

Japan to freeze assets of Russia's central bank

Mar 01 (NHK) - Japan's government will get its central bank to restrict transactions with Russia's central bank, as part of efforts to make sanctions on Moscow more effective.

Officials say several trillion yen that Russia's central bank keeps at the Bank of Japan in foreign currency reserves will be frozen.

On Monday, the Russian ruble crashed to an all-time low, after Western countries imposed tough new economic sanctions.

The Bank of Russia has been deploying its stockpile of international reserves to defend the ruble in currency markets. But the bank will have difficulty doing so if its reserves are frozen.

If the ruble remains in free fall, inflation will accelerate, dealing a blow to the Russian economy.

Russia's central bank is said to hold large portions of its foreign currency reserves in dollars, euro and yuan. Still, officials believe Japan's move will help improve the efficacy of the sanctions against Russia.

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