Russia restricts flow of funds to 'unfriendly' countries, regions

Moscow, March 26 (IANS) Russia has imposed restrictions on the movement of funds that could be transferred to "unfriendly" countries and regions, its central bank has said.

The measure was taken in response to the freezing of part of Russia's gold and foreign currency reserves in some countries, the central bank said on Telegram on Friday.

"A comparable amount" of funds are affected, it said, without specifying the exact sum, Xinhua news agency reported.

Russia has a total of about $640 billion of gold and foreign currency reserves, and some $300 billion of them are frozen after Moscow launched a special military operation in Ukraine, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said earlier this March.