© . FILE PHOTO: A Russian state flag flies over the Central Bank headquarters in Moscow, Russia March 29, 2021. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov () -Russia’s central bank said Friday it had lifted restrictions on transferring foreign funds to individuals for a six – month period. The bank said the measures, which put an earlier limit on money that can be transferred abroad, do not apply to residents and non-residents of countries that had imposed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. “Within a calendar month, individuals have the right to transfer no more than 10,000 US dollars or its equivalent in another currency of the Russian Federation from their account with a Russian bank to their account or to another person abroad,” it said. the bank in a statement. statement. The bank added that transfers abroad from bank accounts of non-residents, natural persons or legal entities from countries that had imposed sanctions would be suspended for the next six months. The measure eases pressure on Russians who regularly send money to relatives abroad, or to those who have left the country without access to their money at home. “From an economic point of view, this is a first and still very tentative step towards easing restrictions on capital movements,” said Dmitry Polevoy, an analyst at Moscow-based brokerage Loko-Invest. “The choice for[the lifting of some restrictions]for individuals is also understandable … the risks to financial stability are lower.” Earlier this month, the central bank said it was temporarily suspending transfers from foreign legal entities and individuals from different countries to accounts abroad. It also limited transfers to the equivalent of no more than $5,000 per month. The regulator said last week that Russia’s central bank, which imposed capital flows out of the country in the past month, was a tit-for-tat move in response to some of its reserves being frozen by Western countries. Western sanctions against Russia for what Moscow calls “a special military operation” in Ukraine have limited the central bank’s ability to back the ruble with dollars and euros in its foreign exchange and gold reserves.
