oligarch warns
«Next year Russia will have no more money»
At a recent economic forum in Siberia, Oleg Deripaska made a bleak forecast. In his view, the country is urgently dependent on foreign investments because of the sanctions.
published
A few years ago, Oleg Deripaska (left) and Vladimir Putin (right) got along well.
Getty Images
In the meantime, however, the Russian government has confiscated a luxury hotel on the Black Sea that belongs to Deripaska. Because the oligarch had openly criticized the war – an absolute no-go in Russia.
REUTERS
At an economic forum, the Russian industrial titan warned of a collapse in the domestic economy.
REUTERS
There is almost no money left now.
REUTERS
While countless Western companies have withdrawn, domestic industries are weakening. Meanwhile, the war is costing the Kremlin an enormous sum.
AFP
According to Deripaska, Russia’s last hope is therefore foreign investors.
AFP
-
To the outside, the Kremlin presents an ideal world – but the Russian economy is groaning under the western sanctions.
-
According to industry giant Oleg Deripaska, reserves are already tight and are likely to be exhausted by 2024.
-
In the face of dwindling income and rising military spending, hopes are now being raised for investment from abroad.
The Russian government might run out of money as early as next year. This forecast is not being made by a Western economic expert, but by Oleg Deripaska. The Russian oligarch is the founder and owner of Basic Element, one of Russia’s largest industrial groups. He was also head of Rusal, the second largest aluminum producer in the world, until 2018. He also co-founded the company in the 1990s.
«Other countries depend on Russia»
As part of the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, which will take place in Siberia from March 1 to 3, he has now urgently addressed one financial collapse of the Russian Federation warned. “As early as next year, no more money will be available,” said Deripaska on Thursday. “Financial resources are becoming increasingly scarce, which is why many other countries have already started to depend on us.”
As early as 2022, the Russian state budget recorded a record deficit. To the Russian authorities are planning to avert the threat of bankruptcy According to “Bloomberg”, they are already planning to increase their household income, for example with higher taxes on oil companies or a one-off levy on commodity groups.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin must Material and troop losses in Ukraine balance as much as possible, which is causing military spending to skyrocket. In early 2023, Russia announced that it would spend more than $84 billion on the military in the coming year – the number exceeding the budget originally planned for 2023 by more than 40 percent.
Asia should play a more important role
To offset the massive spending, according to Deripaska, Russia should Develop a market economy to facilitate foreign investment. For example, countries with “large resources” would be possible partners for Russia. “We thought we were a European country,” said Deripaska. “Now, in the next 25 years, we will think more regarding our Asian past.”
Oleg Deripaska has been sanctioned by the US since 2018, and following the Russian invasion began, the EU and Switzerland also imposed sanctions on Deripaska. The oligarch was one of the first major Russian entrepreneurs to speak out in favor of peace negotiations between the parties and publicly questioned Kremlin information, such as the report that the Butscha massacre only staged had been.
Deripaska in sight from both sides
Ever since he described the “special military operation”, as the conflict in Russia must continue to be called, as a war and “a colossal mistake” in June 2022, the press loyal to the Kremlin has been demanding the expropriation of the oligarch. These calls seem to have been heard: in late 2022, a Russian court confiscated a luxury Black Sea hotel owned by Deripaska. This step apparently only came following the industrial giant had repeated its criticism of the war – according to a person close to it, it had just been asked by the Kremlin to “calm down”.
