Finance Minister Anton asks for powers

The Ministry of Finance asks to give the government and the Central Bank the right to activate a regime of strict currency restrictions in emergency situations.

MAIN

Siluanov proposed modernizing currency controls. Photo: kremlin.ru /( CC BY 4.0 )

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov presented Dmitry Medvedev with proposals for modernizing foreign exchange controls. Vedomosti retells their contents:

• On the one hand, currency legislation needs to be liberalized - for example, the mandatory return of export proceeds to the country should be abolished, Siluanov believes.
• On the other hand, in the event of a crisis, the government and the Central Bank must be given the right to introduce serious currency restrictions.
• We are talking about the right to demand that exporters repatriate money, sell currency, obtain permission to purchase it, and open special accounts for certain transactions.
• The Ministry of Finance proposes to make such amendments to the law on currency control “just in case.” Apparently, by this case we mean a repetition of the situation of December 2014. Then, after the sharp collapse of the ruble, even Vladimir Putin had to call exporters demanding to hand over their currency.
• But what will be considered a crisis in the new version of the law is still unclear. It is proposed to extend the restrictions to those who temporarily invest in Russian assets.

What's in it for me?

The main question that may concern you is why the Ministry of Finance decided to return to discussing this issue now? Perhaps the Russian government knows something that we don't yet know. We may be talking about preparing for new sanctions. The law , signed by Donald Trump in August, directly ordered the US Treasury Department to report within 180 days on the possibility of extending sanctions to Russian sovereign debt and the entire Russian derivatives market. Such a measure could lead to a sharp outflow of capital from Russia.

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