| Belatedly, financial markets have realised that July 16 was Russia’s Lehman moment. On that day, the US imposed sectoral sanctions on Russia because of its military aggression in eastern Ukraine. Two weeks later the EU introduced similar sanctions. However, it was only in December that the markets recognised the severity and tenacity of the financial sanctions.
Officially, the international reserves of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) are $416bn, but not all of it is liquid. Gold reserves represent $45bn. The official reserves include the two sovereign wealth funds, the National Wealth Fund ($82bn) and the Reserve Fund ($89bn), which are held by the finance ministry and spoken for.............................................Full Article: Source
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