Central Bank of Russia

The European Union has frozen Russian assets worth around 17 billion euros since Moscow invaded Ukraine, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said in an interview.     

The figure has risen from the roughly 13.8 billion euros ($13.75 billion) "from oligarchs and other entities" that Reynders announced in July that the EU had frozen, mainly in five countries.    

"The sanctions are designed to persuade Russia to end the conflict as soon as possible. The freezing of the assets of the Central Bank of Russia is an unprecedented move by the international community, as it will have serious difficulties in spending its huge savings to finance this war."

This was stated to bTV today by the Minister of Innovation and Growth Daniel Lorer.

 On the eve of the holidays, the Central Bank of Russia sent a recommendation to banks to inform their customers about the key signs by which a person can recognize phone scammers. "Phone scammers are traditionally increasingly active before the New Year, so it is very important to remind once again how to counter them.

An initiative to create a joint digital currency for BRICS countries and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) has been proposed by the Central Bank of Russia, according to its First Deputy Governor Olga Skorobogatova.

She said the issue of a common cryptocurrency for a number of countries is very promising, more than that for a single nation.

The saga over a majority stake in Thessaloniki Port Authority (OLTH) took another twist on Friday as the signing of the concession of 67 percent of shares was suddenly postponed due to problems with the Russian bank that had issued the letter of guarantee for the transaction.