People in Russia are withdrawing billions from the nation’s banks over fears that the
Kremlin could begin to seize money to finance the war with Ukraine, a report says.
According to
The Washington Post, the country is seeing a record cash outflow
amid intensifying drone strikes from Ukraine.
Nearly 286.4bn rubles (worth $3.4bn) was withdrawn in the first two weeks of August, according to data from the Russian Central Bank, reported in
The Post.
That follows $7.3bn withdrawn last month and more than $4.5bn in June.
Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser to the Russian Central Bank, said the withdrawals illustrated a level of fear among the Russian public.
“It means people have no trust in the Russian banking system or in the Russian financial system,” Prokopenko said.
“This is all a consequence of the fear that the government will do something with the banking system, that it could nationalise deposits.”