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).
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