Effective Monday, all Canadian financial institutions are prohibited from engaging in any transaction with the Russian Central Bank, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced.
In lockstep with G7 partners including the United States, Canada has moved to stop any transactions with the Russian Federation’s main financial institution, in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Sanctioning the Russian Central Bank is an unprecedented step, as it is “the first time a central bank of a G20 country has been sanctioned in this way,” according to the Finance Department.
This move, and the imposed asset freeze and halting of dealings with Russian sovereign wealth funds, are aimed at prohibiting Russia from tapping into any international currency reserves to further finance its attacks on Ukraine.
It follows a series of other financial sanctions and responsive measures from Canada and other allied countries in recent days, including the decision to block several Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging and payment system.
“Canada and its allies continue to take concerted action to ensure that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be a strategic failure. This has never been done before at this scale – today we are taking a historic step by directly censuring Russia’s central bank,” Freeland said in a statement.
