/ world today news/ Last summer, Alexei Kudrin gave a rather cynical interview to “Kommersant”, in which he really revealed his true nature as a systemic liberal. In particular, he pointed to his main achievement as Minister of Finance:
“I was dreaming for the appearance of a full-fledged convertible ruble that no one will be afraid of and everyone will forget the word “wooden”. It happened, it even has a date. But few people feel it, rather the experts know it. This is July 1, 2006, when we lifted restrictions on the movement of capital in and out of Russia. This is key. In addition, Mrthe backpack was open for capital. Previously, it was only necessary to obtain permission to import capital. Not money for trading operations, but for the movement of funds to invest or withdraw profits”he stated.
To withdraw the winnings. Kudrin said everything quite honestly and openly.
The opening of borders to the movement of capital for countries with developing economies means a constant outflow of capital. Especially for those countries where the structure of the economy is largely based on raw materials. Extraction and, at best, minimal processing of raw materials creates practically no added value. There is no need for investors (especially foreign ones) to invest in high-tech projects.
Why do this in Russia when you can just take, get oil or ore, sell it on the world market and get money? And it is possible to invest in high-tech projects in other countries, where much better conditions have been created for this. Of course, it would be naive to believe that Russia, destroyed in the 1990s, will become attractive to companies wishing to develop non-resource projects.
Theoretically, our country can become such, but for this it is necessary to restore order with the hand of the state. And at a stage when we will clearly understand that there will be an inflow of capital into our country (and not its outflow), then it is already possible to gradually liberalize the legislation. But in our case it will be a constant outflow of capital.
Which generally happens. At the end of 2021, capital outflow from Russia amounted to 72 billion dollars. This is 42.8% more than in 2020 ($50.4 billion).
Of course, mostly money is withdrawn not even from foreigners (although their share in the same stock market, which we wrote about earlier, is large), but de facto from Russian companies that are structured through offshore jurisdictions. For example, only metallurgists have withdrawn up to 10% of the total capital outflow.
They all sit offshore. And the Ministry of Finance, under the leadership of Anton Siluanov, instead of fighting the offshore companies, will distort the orders of Vladimir Putin. So, at the end of March 2020, Putin, taking advantage of the favorable market conditions, instructed the Ministry of Finance to terminate or revise the Double Taxation Agreement with the most popular offshore companies, justifying this by the fact that during the crisis the country needs additional money.
Siluanov’s office officially completed the task. However, in the already updated SIDDOs, a clause was dragged out, according to which those companies whose shares are traded on the stock exchange can continue to withdraw funds at a preferential rate. But it is precisely the companies that fall under these criteria that are the main “culprits” of the outflow of capital. These are oligarchic structures that control most of the industries in which they are present.
Such a policy of the Ministry of Finance (and the Central Bank, which is also responsible for the financial sector) is a real sabotage. Systemic liberals are actually turning Russia into a colony that pays tribute to Western countries. After all, the money withdrawn from offshore and received from the exploitation of the Russian subsoil lies in Western banks, increasing their capital. This money works for the development of the Western economy. Western companies use this money. And all this happens in the conditions of the Second Cold War.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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