Due to payments to the dead mercenaries: the Russian Federation has increased sharply the amount of cash - Bloomberg
About it on Friday, June 23, reports American TV channel Blopmberg. Thus, according to journalists, compensation, which pay for the fallen mercenaries of the Wagner PEC "Yevgeny Prigogin (up to $ 5 million or $ 60,000 per person, except for missing wages), usually arrived in the form of cash. Many relatives of the victims are told not to place money in banks, journalists report.
One of the widows, Oksana from Chelyabinsk, who lost her husband, who fought in the Wagner PEC in Bakhmut, did not want to deal with the problems of the tax system and not have documents indicating the origin of money. "Wagner paid everything he had to. We have already bought an apartment," Oksana said. Wagner funding for mercenaries, which, according to the US, is about 50,000 people involved in hostilities in Ukraine, has led to a cash flow passing through the Russian economy.
Since September 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared mobilization, the amount of money in circulation has increased rapidly, which led to the outflow from banks 2. 2 trillion rubles according to Bloomberg Economics. Due to the restrictions imposed on banking operations, cash use is becoming more and more popular for foreign trade payments and extends to the occupied territories of Ukraine, where Russia is introducing its currency as other payment methods are limited.
The Wagner organization, headed by Yevgeny Prigogin, a Russian businessman related to Putin, who was under sanctions, went to Ukraine last March and attracted convicts from Russian prisons. Prigogine does not hide how his fighters receive wages. In an audio comment, published by Concorde this month, he stated that fighters "receive all money in cash. " "People from the colonies go to the war so that Russian citizens can sit at home and warm up near the furnaces.
They die for this cash," Bloomberg says Prigogine. Although Wagner's sources are unknown, his participation in the war means that even more money is spent on war, regardless of cost accounting. According to officials who are acquainted with the position of Russian authorities, money intended for the military, including ordinary troops, is a major reason for increasing the benefits of cash as a means of payment. They claim that tax evasion is unlikely to play a significant role.
Oleg Vyugin, a former high-ranking official of the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, notes that, unlike the 1990s, when employers used cash to evade taxes, the situation has now changed. "The level of taxes remained acceptable to the population and business. However, another source of cash demand appeared with a" special military operation ", - Vyugin said.
In addition, in February 2022, when it became known about the invasion Russia into the territory of Ukraine, the Russians massively withdrew funds from banks. However, this hype was temporary because the Russian bank returned funds to the financial system, urgently raising interest rates and thus restoring confidence in the banking system, American journalists say.