moscow feb 25 reuters  russia will use money from its rainyday fund this year to replace shortfalls caused by a forced reduction in state borrowing which has grown more costly due to new western sanctions finance minister anton siluanov said on friday following russias invasion of ukraine the united states britain and other western nations have imposed new sanctions targeting russian banks sovereign debt and individuals read more siluanov said russias economic and financial situation was stable in general but conceded that sanctions will change the countrys borrowing plan requiring it to tap the national wealth fund which stood at 175 billion as of feb 1 due to an increase in borrowing costs the issuing of state debt has been suspended we are planning to reduce the amount of borrowing this year will utilise nwf funds for it siluanov told a meeting with government officials as russian missiles pounded kyiv authorities in moscow were seeking ways to shield the economy from new penalties that sent the rouble to a record low threatening living standards already hit by high inflation the finance ministry said it will offer only a new series of ofz government bonds and stop offering existing series of debt as the us government slapped restrictions on trading of russian government debt read more the russian central bank beefed up the banking sector with extra liquidity and started to sell foreign currency on the forex market after the rouble fell to alltime lows on the day moscow sent its troops into ukraine read more the central banks forex interventions that it started this week for the first time since 2014 when russia annexed crimea from ukraine have already born fruit vladimir chistyukhin central bank deputy governor said at the same meeting we have a serious safety margin from the financial stability point of view the central bank is ready to support banks with liquidity chistyukhin said siluanov said swings on the foreign exchange market were temporary and there was no immediate risk to financial stability reporting by andrey ostroukh darya korsunskaya elena fabrichnaya and alexander marrow editing by david gregorio