Russia threatens to decrease investments in US national debt
In response to the new U.S. sanctions, Russia will continue to dispose of the U.S Treasury bonds as well as increase payments in national currencies, the Kommersant newspaper reports, citing the statement of the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, made during the broadcast of Russia -1 TV channel.
"We have reduced investments to a minimum. We will continue to reduce our investments in the U.S. economy and American treasury bonds and will conduct more national currency payments as well as other currencies, including European currency, rather than U.S. dollars "he said.
Commending the new package of the U.S sanctions, Siluanov called a ban on lending to Russian state-owned banks the most dangerous measure. "We now see that another sanctions package has been prepared to affect Russian enterprises and the Russian economy. The most sensitive points of this package are to impose certain restrictions on state banks or on one state bank," he said.
However, according to the Russian Vice Premier, in this case, the bank, which can get under these sanctions “will always strengthen its liquidity”.
Earlier, commenting on this sanctions package, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Moscow would regard its implementation as an announcement of an economic war.