By Andrey Ostroukh
MOSCOW---Russian banks will receive dollars from the budget in
early November, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Wednesday,
Russian news agencies reported.
Russia's finance ministry said last week it would provide
temporary foreign currency funds to Russian banks via auction.
Banks would later return the funds to the ministry.
Mr. Siluanov said the ministry would offer a part of its
temporary funding at a first auction, without providing a date for
the auction, or detailing the maturity of those funds. Ministry
officials said earlier this month that Russian banks would receive
some $3 billion in total.
The central bank also said it would feed the Russian market with
dollars by providing hard currencies at weekly foreign-exchange
repurchase agreement auctions, due to start next week.
Western sanctions on Russia, imposed after Russia's annexation
of Crimea in Ukraine, have put the ruble under immense pressure on
foreign exchange markets and have shut out Russian borrowers from
financial markets. As a result, Russian companies and banks have
had to buy dollars and euros on the Russian market to repay foreign
debt.
Write to Andrey Ostroukh at andrey.ostroukh@wsj.com