file photo  a general view shows residential buildings in front of the moscow international business center also known as moskvacity in moscow russia may 22 2017 reuterssergei karpukhin moscow feb 21 reuters  russian ratings agency acra estimates that the countrys banks imported 5 billion worth of banknotes in foreign currencies in december up from 265 billion a year before in a preemptive step in case of sanctions creating increased demand dollars traditionally dominate such imports which along with other currencies many russians like to hold as a hedge against any drop in the value of the rouble or rise in inflation both potential outcomes of foreign sanctions valery piven senior director at acra told reuters that calculations based on technical reports which banks submit to russias central bank each month showed that they had also imported 21 billion in foreign banknotes in november the united states is considering new sanctions against russia proposing to cut some of its top banks from dollar transactions and reducing their ability to service dollardenominated obligations sources told reuters read more the ratio of forex assets and liabilities held by banks is regulated by the central bank and currently does not cause a concern the increase in forex imports is more related to a possible spike in demand for cash currency piven said russias central bank declined to comment but the countrys banks regularly import foreign currencies in cash to meet demand from customers for dollars or euros needed for overseas travel or in case of unforeseen circumstances despite heightened fears of a military conflict in ukraine the foreign exchange imports in december are still well short of the 18 billion brought into russia at the end of 2014 when the rouble was in freefall after moscows annexation of crimea russian denies that it plans to attack ukraine around a half of russias total banking foreign assets and liabilities or some 100 billion and 70 billion respectively are held in us dollars central bank data shows this is down from around 80 in 2002 and 70 in early 2014 russias top banks sberbank sbermm vtb vtbrmm veb and gazprombank  which were named in the reuters report on monday as possible dollar sanctions targets did not reply to requests for comment the russian finance ministry did not respond to a request for comment in preparation for possible sanctions on dollar transactions first floated by us officials a few years ago russias top banks opened correspondent accounts between themselves allowing them to move dollars around domestically sources have said provided at least one major lender is untouched by sanctions we are aware that washington is constantly working on drafting new sanctions kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov told reporters on monday adding it was hard to make further comment russias finance ministry said last week it would ensure all bank liabilities including in foreign currencies would be honoured should sanctions hit the financial sector while saying there would be temporary market volatility read more reporting by elena fabrichnaya additional reporting by dmitry antonov alexander marrow and darya korsunskaya writing by katya golubkova editing by alexander smith