As the ruble's value plunges, Russia's central bank on Wednesday instituted a six-month ban prohibiting citizens from buying dollars or any other hard currencies. In addition, anyone who wants to withdraw from hard-currency accounts at Russian banks can only take $10,000 in US dollars and must take any remaining balance in rubles, per the Bank of Russia's order. The bank is trying to prevent a run on dollars as Western sanctions have limited the bank's access to its hard-currency reserves, but one expert says it could backfire: "The biggest mistake monetary authority may make in Russia is to touch private savings—if there was no bank run until now, it’s going to happen," Sergey Aleksashenko, a former top official at Russia’s finance ministry and central bank who now lives in the US, tells the Washington Post.
In other financial news related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express have suspended operations in Russia, and as a result, led Russian banks to consider new ways to facilitate certain payments, the AP reports. One contender: payment cards powered by China’s UnionPay payment processing system, a rival to Visa and Mastercard. Earlier this week, Business Insider took a look at Russia's economy, which is "in turmoil," and what the central bank could do next. (An increasing number of major brands are exiting Russia.)
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