OREANDA-NEWS The government and the Bank of Russia have prepared a draft decree on unblocking part of foreign assets for exchange for Russian ones, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said. At the first stage, it is planned to unblock accounts for about 100 billion rubles.

"Today we have blocked the assets of more than 3.5 million Russian citizens in the amount of 1.5 trillion rubles. Taking into account the decisions supported by you, we envisage the beginning of the exchange of assets of our citizens for assets of foreign investors, which are currently accumulated in type C accounts. At the first stage, we plan to unblock accounts of about 100 billion rubles belonging to retail investors," Mr. Siluanov said at a meeting of the Strategic Development Council.

According to the Central Bank, as of the end of November 2022, the assets of Russian investors in the amount of about 5.7 trillion rubles were blocked in European depositories. The total amount of funds in type "C" accounts as of the beginning of November 2022 exceeded 280 billion rubles. Since then, the Bank of Russia has not disclosed this indicator. According to Interfax sources, at the end of 2022, it was approaching 600 billion rubles.