Monday, January 29, 2018

Putin Advisor Concedes More than a Trillion US Dollars have Left Russia Over the Last 30 Years



Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 28 – Many Western experts have suggested that oligarchs, officials and other Russians have sent at least 1.3 trillion US dollars abroad for safekeeping or in the hopes of making more money. Now, a senior Kremlin official has effectively confirmed that such a figure is not far from the truth.

            Speaking to the World Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Summit in Moscow, Sergey Glaziyev, an advisor to Vladimir Putin, said that “over the last 30 years, [Russians] have given the world financial system more than one trillion US dollars, which have flowed out of Russia” (rns.online/economy/Glazev-iz-rossiiskoi-ekonomiki-viveli-bolee-1-trln-za-30-let--2018-01-27/).

            “Honestly speaking, we don’t know very well where it is located. We know that approximately half a trillion dollars moves between offshores and the Russian economies” in amounts equally “hundreds of billions of dollars every year. But the other half of the trillion in general has disappeared in an unknown direction.”   

            According to Glaziyev, “this worries our tax authorities” because it means that those who keep their money inside Russia are being forced to pay more taxes than are those who secrete it abroad.  The rise of digital money, he suggests, will allow governments, including the Russian one, to trace such funds more rapidly.

            In reporting Glaziyev’s remarks, the URA news agency pointed out that the presidential advisor is often viewed as “’a counterweight’ to the economists and politicians of a liberal trend.  His declarations frequently generate anger among the most senior people” and suggestions that he should be forced out (ura.news/news/1052321628).

No comments:

Post a Comment