Bank of Russia Defends Intervention With Dig at Wealth Fund Raid

The Bank of Russia mounted a defense of its interventions on the currency market, saying the government had more heavily influenced monetary policy by tapping the country’s sovereign wealth funds.

Operations by the government amount to a “more significant” factor, the Russian central bank’s head of monetary policy, First Deputy Governor Dmitry Tulin, said at a banking conference in St. Petersburg on Friday. The interventions, started in May to replenish international reserves, are compatible with a free-floating exchange rate, according to Tulin.