G-7 Finance Chiefs Ready for More Russia Action to Help Ukraine

(Bloomberg) -- The Group of Seven stands ready for further “swift action” against Russia and is committed to “significantly” support Ukraine financially.

“Between 2014 and 2021, international partners provided financial support to Ukraine worth more than $48 billion,” G-7 finance chiefs and central bank governors said in a joint statement after virtual talks Tuesday, which Ukraine Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko also attended. “We have continued to step up our support in 2022.”

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. and its allies unleashed a wall of overlapping sanctions on Russia. Those restrictions -- imposed over the weekend and targeting banks, companies and individuals -- led to a collapse in the ruble and prompted the central bank in Moscow to impose capital controls to try and avert investor panic and shore up the economy.

“We are focusing on maximizing the damage to the Russian economy, to Putin's supporters and to the Russian capital markets,” said German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, whose country heads the G-7 this year. “All the measures we are taking are aimed at reducing Russia's capacity to wage this war.”

Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina has acknowledged that sanctions imposed on the central bank meant she couldn't intervene to keep the ruble from collapsing on Monday. 

“It's important that the curtailing of the Russian central bank's activities has already been more effective than we anticipated,” Lindner told reporters in Berlin. “The ruble is in free fall and Vladimir Putin's war chest has been seriously affected. This measure has limited impact on us but maximum impact on Russia. The other technical issues will be discussed very swiftly.”

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