Russia’s richest businessmen are moving billions abroad amid fears of asset seizures, Bloomberg reports
Several of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen have moved billions of dollars out of the country over the past year amid growing concern about the economy’s future and the federal budget, Bloomberg reported, citing six wealthy Russians and other people familiar with the thinking of several of the country’s billionaires.
The businessmen, some of them close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, also fear that their assets could be seized — as they were, for example, in the case of Dmitry Kamenshchik, the former owner of Domodedovo Airport.
The businessmen also worry that the state will step up pressure on them to fund the war. At a closed-door meeting with Putin in March, leading businessmen were asked to contribute, The Bell reported at the time. The Kremlin said the businessmen were not asked and came forward with the initiative themselves.
Over the past year, some of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen have shifted their investment portfolios toward cryptocurrency, gold, and real estate abroad, Bloomberg’s sources said.
The scale of unofficial capital flight — through opaque cryptocurrency transactions, for example — is hard to measure, Bloomberg said. Two sources familiar with the investment decisions of several of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen estimated the outflow so far this year at tens of billions of dollars, an increase from the previous year.
Russian businessmen trying to move assets beyond the Kremlin’s reach must reckon with the Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine, Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg mentioned A7 in this connection, a cross-border payments company whose listed owners are fugitive Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor and the Russian state bank Promsvyazbank, known as PSB. A7 moves money using A7A5, a cryptocurrency pegged to the ruble. In September, PSB Deputy Chairman Mikhail Dorofeev said that transactions through A7 totaled 7.5 trillion rubles (about $96 billion) in the first half of 2025.
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