Bank 'Russia' refuses from foreign currency

Joint-stock bank "Russia" sent a notice to a number of U.S. banks to inform them about the move to close correspondent accounts in foreign currency and decided to work only with the Russian national currency.

The bank does not need financial support, not even from the Central Bank of Russia.

"In order to protect bank clients from unethical practices of foreign financial institutions, Bank "Russia" decided to work exclusively on the domestic market and only with one currency - the national currency of the Russian Federation - the ruble," the statement from the bank said.

Earlier, the U.S. authorities decided to impose sanctions on the bank. After that, Visa and MasterCard payment systems stopped servicing the clients of the bank without notice. Russian President Vladimir Putin, having learnt about the sanctions, opened a personal account in the bank. Many other Russian politicians, officials and ordinary citizens followed his example.