Russia’s foreign exchange reserves had to be kept abroad and nothing could have been done to avoid a freeze of the country’s dollar and euro assets, the central bank said in the latest question-and-answer post on its website.

President Putin says ‘unfriendly countries’ must switch to its currency by March 31 Russian President Vladimir Putin has authorized the government, the central bank, and Gazprombank to take the necessary steps to switch all payments for Russian natural gas from “unfriendly states” to rubles starting March 31.

Some 26 million residents of China’s economic capital of Shanghai will be confined to their homes as Beijing imposes a massive citywide lockdown starting on Monday in a bid to maintain a ‘zero-Covid’ policy.