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by John Helmer, Moscow
  @bears_with

A new presidential decree issued yesterday by the Kremlin ends the special measures for foreign currency and capital control issued since the start of the special military operation in the Ukraine on February 24.  

Instead, a special commission of government officials and the board of directors of the Russian Central Bank have been empowered to decide, on application from Russian companies and individuals, how much foreign currency they will be permitted to export abroad, and over what period of time they will be allowed to do this.

These applications for transfer abroad of foreign currency will be reviewed and decided in secret. 

The Russian text of Presidential Decree No. 360 can be read here.  

The full English translation is as follows:

“About making changes in the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 79 dated February 28, 2022, On the application of Special Economic Measures in connection with the Unfriendly Actions of the United States of America and of the Foreign States and International Organizations which have joined them and the Presidential Decree of the Russian Federation dated March 18, 2022, No. 126 On Temporary  Measures to ensure the Financial Stability of the Russian Federation in the field of Currency Regulation  

1. Amend the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 79 of February 28, 2022 On the Application of Special Economic Measures in connection with the Unfriendly Actions of the United States of America and of the Foreign States and International Organizations which have joined them (Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation, 2022, No. 10, Article 1465; Official Internet Portal of Legal Information (www.pravo.gov.ru ), 2022, May 24, No. 0001202205240001) the following changes:

a) Paragraph 2 should be worded as follows:
‘ 2. Residents – participants in foreign economic activity are obliged to sell foreign currency credited to their accounts in authorized banks on the basis of foreign trade contracts concluded with non-residents and providing for the transfer of goods to non-residents, the provision of services to non-residents, the performance of works for non-residents, the transfer to non-residents of the proceeds of intellectual activity, including exclusive rights to them, in the amount determined by the Government Commission on Control over the Implementation of Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation, in the time established by the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation’.

b) Paragraph 4.1 should be worded as follows:
‘4.1. To grant the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation the authority to determine a period other than that established in accordance with Paragraph 2 of this Decree for the fulfillment by residents participating in foreign economic activity of the obligation to sell foreign currency.’

2. Make the following amendments to the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 126 of March 18, 2022 On  Temporary Economic Measures to Ensure the Financial Stability of the Russian Federation in the Field of Currency Regulation (Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation, 2022, No. 12, Article 1808):

a) To recognize subparagraph ‘a’ of paragraph 4 as invalid;

b) Subparagraph ‘a of Paragraph 9 should be worded as follows:
‘a) issue permits for residents participating in foreign economic activity to fulfill the requirements of Paragraph 2 of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated February 28, 2022 No. 79 On the Application of Special Economic Measures in connection with the Unfriendly Actions of the United States of America and the Foreign States and International Organizations which have joined them in an amount different from that determined in accordance with the above item’.

3. This Decree comes into force from the date of its official publication.

The President of the Russian Federation
V. PUTIN

The Kremlin, Moscow
June 9, 2022
No. 360”

The head of the Control Commission, whose power to decide each foreign exchange application,  is Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin; there are 28 other commission members including several deputy prime ministers; Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu; Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov; Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service; several sectoral ministers and agency chiefs.  

The lowest ranked member of the commission is Yury Isaev, the former head of the bank bailout Deposit Insurance Agency who was appointed in January to be the deputy governor of the Central Bank; he is in charge of monitoring money laundering and foreign exchange control.   Isaev ranks ninth in seniority at the bank below  the Governor, Elvira Nabiullina.  In his past career, Isaev was in charge of Rossiysky Credit Bank when it became insolvent; he has also worked for the Georgian oligarch Bidzina  Ivanishvili and for the Rusal owner, Oleg Deripaska.

Left: President Vladimir Putin; right, Yury Isaev, deputy governor of the Central Bank.

The meaning of the June 9 decree can be understood by reading these three reports in the sequence in which they were published; these reports also provide links to the earlier decrees identified in Thursday’s new decree: March 10.

April 17.

And on May 30.



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