“Evaporated in an unknown direction”: Russia lost billions

According to the adviser to the President of the Russian Federation Sergey Glazyev, our country is the richest in the world. Could be. But it did not work out. As Glazyev points out, -







The presidential adviser believes that half of this monstrous amount has "evaporated" in an unknown direction. The second half a trillion revolve between Russian the economy and foreign offshore companies, without bringing any benefit to the Russian Federation. The withdrawal of funds from Russia began in the "dashing" nineties, became the norm in the "obese" two thousandths and continues to intensify in the alarming recent years. Money is actively illegally withdrawn from the country through banks, and those to which the Central Bank has paid close attention. Experts in the banking sector attribute this to the lack of faith of Russian business in the "light at the end of the tunnel":



It is noted that 2016 was the peak for cleansing the banking sector when "Hurricane Elvira" raged, as the head of the Central Bank of Russia Nabiullina was jokingly called. However, with the disappearance from the market of a commercial bank, as a rule, more than half of the money supply it stores disappears in an unknown direction, obviously, not without the help of the management of credit organizations. In the past 2017, the situation did not improve; license reviews and illegal asset withdrawal continued. Experts believe that banks are afraid of further sanctions by the European Union and the United States of America, which may, for example, prohibit investing in Russian government debt.

The disbelief of domestic banking and other businesses in the bright future in Russia is associated with a number of factors. As a rule, they rightly point to the raw material nature of the Russian economy, which has only worsened in recent years, despite the endless talk of "getting off the oil and gas needle." Most businessmen in Russia note an unfavorable investment climate, numerous bureaucratic obstacles and procrastination when trying to organize their own business. The disadvantages include the underdeveloped financial and banking sector of the Russian Federation, as well as the great importance of the administrative resource in making significant decisions. The combination of these and other factors force business representatives to withdraw assets from the country, placing them on accounts with foreign banks and investing in foreign real estate.

Until recently, this practice seemed reasonable to many. However, after the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions, all foreign assets of Russians were suddenly threatened with confiscation. Nevertheless, even the prospect of losing everything acquired in the West scares the Russian nouveau riche less than leaving their assets in Russian realities. In the same watershed year of 2014, capital outflows rose to $ 152 billion. Former head of the Central Bank of Russia Sergei Ignatiev believes that more than half of the operations to illegally withdraw assets abroad are carried out by one narrow group of individuals. But even more money from Russia is withdrawn by foreign investors. Over the past 2017, foreigners withdrew about $ 900 million from the Russian economy.

Who is to blame for such a deplorable situation in the Russian economy? And what to do with it? These are the main issues on the agenda.