WASHINGTON—The U.S. is sanctioning Russia’s central bank to prevent the government from using its emergency reserve currencies to protect the economy from the Western pressure campaign, senior U.S. officials said ahead of the opening of U.S. markets.
The sanctions should further stoke inflation as Russia’s central bank is blocked from using the dollars, euros and other foreign currencies in its reserves stockpile to stabilize the ruble, the officials said. The U.S.’s actions, coordinated with its European and other Western allies, are part of its broader effort to coerce the Kremlin to abandon its invasion of Ukraine.
