A group of US senators proposes to block Russia's gold reserves.

This is reported by the American edition of Axios.

 The bill, introduced by Senators Angus King, John Cornyn, Bill Gagerty and Maggie Hassan, would target Russia's ability to sell gold reserves.

This imposes secondary sanctions on any U.S. organisations dealing with the gold in the Russian central bank.

 "The group plans to include such legislation in the overall spending bill that the US needs to pass by March 11 to avoid a shutdown. Russia has about $132 billion gold reserves and has been increasing its proportion since the US imposed sanctions on Russia for the aggressor's annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea," the publication says.

Russia's large gold reserves are one of the few remaining assets that Putin can use to keep his country's economy from falling even further. If these reserves are sanctioned, the US will be able to further isolate the Russian Federation from the world economy and complicate the Kremlin's military campaign.