Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories
Donate
Marketplace

Subscribe:

Mar 1, 2022

To prop up the ruble, Russia beefed up its reserves. Now they’re inaccessible.

U.S. and ally sanctions have frozen Russian assets, making them impossible to access and to stabilize the ruble.

Download
People queue outside a branch of Russian state-owned bank Sberbank to withdraw their savings and close their accounts in Prague on February 25, 2022, before Sberbank will close all its branches in the Czech Republic later in the day. - US President Biden was the first to announce sanctions, hours after Russian President Putin declared a "military operation" into Ukraine. The first tranche will hit four Russian banks -- including the country's two largest, Sberbank and VTB Bank -- cut off more than half of Russia's technology imports, and target several of the country's oligarchs.
People queue outside a branch of Russian state-owned bank Sberbank to withdraw their savings and close their accounts in Prague on February 25, 2022, before Sberbank will close all its branches in the Czech Republic later in the day. - US President Biden was the first to announce sanctions, hours after Russian President Putin declared a "military operation" into Ukraine. The first tranche will hit four Russian banks -- including the country's two largest, Sberbank and VTB Bank -- cut off more than half of Russia's technology imports, and target several of the country's oligarchs.
MIchal Cizek/AFP via Getty Images

Subscribe:

Segments From This Episode

Music from the episode

The Team

To prop up the ruble, Russia beefed up its reserves. Now they’re inaccessible.