4.5 trillion rubles from the National Welfare Fund will be allocated for the restoration of Donbass

As RIA Novosti writes, citing Sergey Ryabukhin, deputy head of the budget committee of the Federation Council, the money will be used to restore houses, substations, sewage treatment plants, social and economic infrastructure facilities and roads in the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics. Ryabukhin said that the treasury has "a powerful margin of stability." He also recalled the accumulated "very serious volume of the NWF."

According to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, as of February 1, 2022, the fund has 13.6 trillion rubles, but some of these funds have been spent. Including, to support banks - 416 billion rubles, "self-sustaining infrastructure projects" - 294 billion rubles and $ 4.1 billion, Ukrainian Eurobonds - $ 3 billion, investments in Sberbank shares - 3 trillion rubles, which have collapsed by a quarter since the beginning of February, which brought the fund 750 billion rubles of loss.

The fund's liquid assets, Finanz.ru points out, at the beginning of the month amounted to $112.7 billion (8.8 trillion rubles). This is equivalent to 6.6% of the projected Russian GDP for 2023.

Recall that on February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a document recognizing the independence of the DNR and LNR. After that, the permanent representatives of the European Union announced the beginning of the procedure for preparing targeted sanctions against Moscow on February 22, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the country would remain within "internationally recognized borders." The United States has also announced sanctions. During Tuesday, Washington should specify the announced restrictive measures.

In addition, today it became known about the entry of Russian troops into the territory of Donbass.