New BRICS Currency Reserve Pool Could Offer Protection From Sanctions

By The Moscow Times

July 16, 2014

The $100 billion currency reserve pool agreed by the BRICS emerging nations this week could help escape the damaging effects of sanctions, Russia's Central Bank chief, Elvira Nabiullina, told Gazeta.ru Wednesday.

BRICS launched the reserve pool along with a $100 billion development bank in Brazil on Tuesday with the aim of giving its members more of a say in the West-dominated global financial order.

Nabiullina said that while the reserve was not created with sanctions specifically in mind, it could be used to provide additional financial flows should the West take further punitive action over Russia's actions in Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday called on BRICS to agree on measures to help prevent countries being harassed by the U.S. and its allies for not going along with their foreign policy decisions.

U.S. President Barack Obama also on Monday asked the European Union to expand its sanctions against Russia, Bloomberg reported, but the EU governments are reluctant to do so for fear of hurting their own economies.

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