Russia will work out a proposal to pay foreign companies that sell their assets in the country with central bank bonds held in its frozen reserves abroad, instead of cash, the central bank said today, as a way to limit volatility of the ruble.

The Russian ruble this month saw its biggest drop in more than a year, which traders and analysts attributed in part to foreign companies selling their assets in Russia to local buyers, although the central bank appeared to be underestimating effects of such transactions.

Sales of assets by investors from so-called “unfriendly countries,” those that have imposed sanctions on Moscow, require the approval of a government committee. The finance ministry said exit transactions should take place within strict limits under the control of the central bank.

“It needs to be developed further, but in principle, such an initiative should be seen as one of the measures to protect the frozen assets abroad,” Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiulina told Russian parliamentarians, responding to their proposal to foreigners leaving Russia are paid in bonds instead of cash.

Such a radical move would run into a number of hurdles, not least, according to Nabiullina, that linking the bonds to the frozen assets could require Russia to disclose the structure and location of its reserves.

“We wouldn’t want that,” Nabiullina said.

He added that it is probably unfeasible to “force” foreign companies to pay with bonds, or even to have Russian assets unbundled by overseas regulators.

In some cases non-residents receive income from asset sales or dividend payments in special ‘type-C’ accounts. However, access to these accounts is blocked for most foreign investors. Nabiulina said the bond system could act as an alternative to these bills.