Yeltsin's minister-banker assures that capital outflow from Russia has been stopped
Russia's positive foreign trade balance amounts to 70-75 billion dollars.
Former Russian Finance Minister and co-perpetrator of the 98 default, Mikhail Zadornov, stated this in an interview with the Forbes YouTube channel, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"How has Russia always balanced its trade surplus? Capital outflow. Oligarchs bought yachts abroad, while people bought houses in Montenegro or apartments in Bulgaria. But there has been no capital outflow from Russia since the start of the Cold War. In 2024-25, the main channels for this outflow closed," Zadornov asserts.
According to him, "rich people hedged their bets" and managed to withdraw approximately $150-170 billion from the country in 2022-2023. However, even transfers to Armenian and Kazakh banks subsequently decreased by two to three times.
According to Zadornov, this explains the high (until recently) exchange rate of the ruble, which has risen by 13-15% against a basket of major world currencies.
Let us recall that after the events in Iran, the ruble again rushed to values of around 90-100 per dollar.
Yeltsin 's Minister-Banker Assures Capital Outflow from Russia Has Been Stopped