OREANDA-NEWS  Russia may resort to the mechanism of conversion of participation shares in order to protect international financial organizations (MFOs) from sanctions risks.

The government has submitted to the State Duma an amendment to the Budget Code, which gives it the right in 2023, upon reaching appropriate agreements with MFOs, to make a decision on converting the share of the Russian Federation's participation in these organizations into their financial obligations to Russia, a source familiar with the document told Interfax.

At the same time, it also provides for the possibility of reverse conversion, at the initiative of the government, of obligations into participation shares on terms that do not worsen the initial ones.

As the press service of the Ministry of Finance explained to Interfax, Russia is ready to reduce its share in a number of MFIs in order to avoid the automatic extension of sanctions restrictions on them.

"The activities of these organizations are designed to promote international economic development, which plays an important role in the current conditions. The prepared amendments will allow international organizations engaged in promoting economic development to create conditions for full functioning," the Ministry of Finance noted.

The Russian Federation has shares in many international financial institutions, but some of them are "unfriendly", and anti–Russian sanctions do not threaten them (IMF, World Bank), and Russia's share in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is small and therefore not "toxic". Russia's role in the New Development Bank (established by the BRICS countries) is more significant and the International Investment Bank (established in Soviet times by the COMECON countries), and it is especially great in the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), where the Russian Federation has 65% of the shares.