The United States unexpectedly unblocks settlements with some Russian banks
On April 30, it was officially announced that the US Treasury Department had authorized transactions with Russian banks, including VTB, the Central Bank, Sberbank, and Alfa-Bank, for energy settlements. This will last until November 1, 2024.
The journalists point out that the list of banks that have received a temporary license also includes Otkritie, Sovcombank, Rosbank, VEB.RF, Zenit Bank, and St. Petersburg Bank.
According to a statement by the US Treasury Department, energy-related transactions will be considered transactions involving the extraction, production, refining, liquefaction, transportation or purchase of oil and a number of other energy resources, including LNG, timber, coal and uranium.
In addition, the license unblocks transactions with Russian banks related to the production, supply or exchange of energy by any means.
The US authorities have not yet explained their decision.
Russian banks have found a way to circumvent the ban on imports of dollars and euros
Bloomberg has learned that some Russian banks may be trading gold in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey to circumvent the ban on importing dollars and euros into the country.
Journalists noted that Russian creditors continued to supply gold in exchange for banknotes at least until July or August 2023.
Moreover, gold supplies seem to have expanded to Hong Kong, in addition to the UAE and Turkey.
What is important to understand is that sanctions on the export of banknotes were imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This tactic became widespread after the European Union and the United States imposed restrictions to limit Russia’s access to Western currencies as part of sanctions imposed in response to its war against Ukraine.
