Restrictions Russia’s central bank imposed in the past month on capital flows out of the country were a tit-for-tat move in response to part of its reserves being frozen by Western countries, the regulator said on Friday. Western sanctions imposed on Russia for what Moscow calls “a special military operation” in Ukraine have limited the central bank’s ability to support the rouble currency with dollars and euros held in its foreign currency and gold reserves. “In response to the freezing of part of Russia’s reserves, Russia also introduced restrictions on the movement of funds that could be transferred to unfriendly countries by a comparable amount,” the central bank said in its first detailed explanation of the reasoning behind its decisions. These included capital flow restrictions, a ban on the sale of securities by foreign investors, a ban on withdrawal of their funds from the Russian financial system, and the need …