Following toughening of anti-Russian sanctions, Russian billionaires have started to repatriate their assets. According to Bloomberg, that has resulted in the corporate deposits of Russia’s Sberbank going up to nearly $100 bln.
Trump Administration is thus unintentionally assisting Vladimir Putin in accomplishing the goal he’s been unable to reach for nearly two decades, the agency notes.
This year, Sberbank’s corporate deposits has gone up by 20% and reached $98 bln. The balance of payments also evidences that private businesses in Russia have kept more revunues in the country than channeled abroad. That was the aftermath of the new US sanctions. Relatively weak sanctions imposed by Obama Administration over the Ukrainian conflict, have been expanded and toughened after Donald Trump took office.
Escape of oligarchs back to Russia commenced after US authorities targeted businessmen Oleg Deripaska and Victor Vekselberg. Within few hours after the sanctions were announced, their companies lost billions of dollars. The trend is now growing stronger, since Western countries threaten to impose even tougher sanctions because of the alleged interference of Russia in the US presidential election and the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK.