Businesses in the RF are Massively Withdrawing Capital Abroad via Fictitious Loans – Intelligence
Kyiv • UNN
The number of fictitious loans used to withdraw capital from the RF has increased by 70%. The country's budget deficit could reach 18 trillion rubles by the end of the year.
Russia is recording a sharp increase in fictitious loans to foreign companies used for capital flight. Against the backdrop of a deteriorating economy and budget deficit, businesses are increasingly seeking ways to move funds out of the country, intensifying financial pressure on the state. This was reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service, according to UNN.
Russian entrepreneurs are rapidly losing confidence in the domestic economy and are looking for any loopholes to save their assets. The Federal Tax Service (FTS) of the Russian Federation is recording an abnormal increase in the number of fictitious loans to foreign companies, which are being issued en masse by Russian enterprises with negative equity. The number of such transactions has jumped by 70%,
The scheme is based on moving funds from Russian jurisdiction abroad under the guise of a reversible transaction. Subsequently, the debt is simply written off or "settled" through non-monetary means. According to FTS estimates, the share of such dubious operations has already reached 10% of the total number of deals. In fact, we are talking about the withdrawal of hundreds of billions of rubles already, and this process is only gaining momentum every day.
The main catalyst for capital flight has been the critical state of Russia's public finances. In the first four months of the year, the Russian state treasury received 11.7 trillion rubles, while spending 17.6 trillion. The budget gap already stands at 5.9 trillion rubles (or 2.5% of the country's GDP). Even the growth in revenues from the oil and gas sector is unable to cover these losses.
If the dynamics persist, by the end of the year, the Russian budget deficit could reach 18 trillion rubles (~$200 billion). Economists have calculated that this amount is four times higher than the actual remaining balances of the National Wealth Fund. Under such conditions, even a total sell-off of the gold reserves will not save Russia from financial collapse,