Canada bans all financial institutions from engaging with Russian Central Bank

As Russia continues to wreak havoc in Ukraine, the Western nations have stood stern on their ground to impose the biggest sanctions against Moscow. Adding to the global efforts to condemn Moscow’s aggressive incursion in Kyiv, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday prohibited all the Canadian financial institutions from engaging in transactions with the Russian Central Bank. Canada’s aggressive move is in line with European Union’s attempt to disable Moscow financially to punish Kremlin for its unprovoked violence and hegemony.

Canada’s move to remove Russia’s International Currency reserves from its platforms is being called a measure to further restrict President Putin’s ability to finance the ongoing bloodshed in war-torn Ukraine. 

“Effective immediately, all Canadian financial institutions are prohibited from engaging in transactions with the Russian Central Bank – eliminating its ability to deploy Russia’s international currency reserves and further restricting Putin’s ability to finance his war of choice,” Canadian PM Trudeau tweeted. 
 

US & Ukraine's Western Allies to cut Moscow from SWIFT payment network

Meanwhile, United States President Joe Biden is expected to hold a secure call with its European allies on Monday to discuss the coordinated response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US and its European allies have been in discussion regarding key financial sanctions against Russia, cutting its private banks off the SWIFT payment network, the International domain for global financial transactions, that the European Union believes will cripple the Russian economy.

Japan followed the United States and other Western nations in imposing more penalties against Russia over the weekend. The restrictions on the Russian central bank are aimed at preventing it from accessing more than $600 billion in reserves held by the Kremlin. Moscow is bearing a huge economic cost for leading a war in Ukraine as along with the global condemnation, enormous economic sanctions on Putin’s country, trade companies and oligarchs have been imposed by several global leaders.

With casualties mounting daily as Russia continues to wreck Ukraine with artillery, missiles and bombs, Kyiv has accepted to ‘talk the conflict’ out with Kremlin leaders in neighbouring Belarus’s capital Minsk. With diminished hope, Zelenskyy considered the proposal to avenge further escalation of the war. Russian and Ukrainian delegations are meeting on Monday in Belarus, near the Chernobyl exclusion zone.  

Russia has upped the ante against the contending nation to seize control of Kyiv, a dreadful battle is going on in Ukraine's capital. Several reports claim that Moscow has been successful in capturing many villages in the separatist backed Donbas region and parts of the second-largest city Kharkiv. The multi-pronged ambush that had commenced on February 24, after Russia recognised separatist regions- LPR & DPR as independent nations, had now been spurted across the nation. 

Image: ANI