Russians' holdings in foreign bank accounts hit record high - central bank

The value of Russians' foreign bank account holdings doubled in the first eleven months of 2022 to a record high, as hundreds of thousands of Russians fled abroad in protest at Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine and to avoid being conscripted to fight.

The value of Russians' foreign bank account holdings doubled in the first eleven months of 2022 to a record high, as hundreds of thousands of Russians fled abroad in protest at Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine and to avoid being conscripted to fight. Russia's central bank said on Thursday that Russians held 4.99 trillion roubles in foreign bank accounts as of 1 Dec 2022 - equivalent to $82 billion based on calculations using the regulator's official exchange rate for that date.

That figure is more than double the 2.23 trillion roubles the central bank said Russians held in foreign bank accounts at the start of the year - or $30.6 billion based on exchange rates at the time. Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled the country last year as President Vladimir Putin launched a military campaign in Ukraine, marshalled a harsh crackdown on his domestic opponents and launched a mobilisation campaign to conscript more than 300,000 men to fight in Ukraine.

Their exodus has fuelled economic booms in neighbouring countries, including Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan, where well-off Russians have fled to, bringing billions of dollars with them. The central bank data comes from international transfers as well as agreements with some ex-Soviet countries to share data on foreign residents' bank holdings. Several western countries, including Britain and Germany, stopped exchanging financial data with Moscow as part of a sweeping package of sanctions after Russia sent troops into Ukraine.

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