Moscow may run out of money by next year, Russian oligarch says

Outspoken Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has said Russia may not receive any money next year at the earliest unless the country secures investment from “friendly” nations.

“There will be no money already next year, we need foreign investors,” Deripaska told an economic conference in Siberia on Thursday. CNN informed of. The billionaire, who called for an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine in the early days of the conflict last year, also said funds were running low and “that’s why he [the Russian government] has already begun to shake us”.

Mr Deripaska said Russia was suffering from “serious” pressure from Western sanctions, and that the nation and its businesses would have to look to other countries with “serious resources” to invest in. “We thought we were a European country,” Mr Deripaska said, according to Guardian, “Now, for the next 25 years, we will think more of our Asian past,” he said.

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Notably, Mr Deripaska’s comments came after Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the country’s economy for being resilient in the face of unprecedented Russian sanctions imposed last year. According to a preliminary government estimate, Russia’s economic output shrank by only 2.1% last year. The contraction was more limited than many economists had initially predicted.

According to CNNSince Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries have imposed more than 11,300 sanctions and frozen nearly $300 billion of Russia’s foreign reserves in an effort to deprive it of resources for its invasion. However, China has made the Kremlin an economic lifeline by buying Russian energy, replacing Western suppliers of machinery and base metals, among other products, and providing an alternative to the US dollar.

Still, Moscow has a long way to go before it can recover lost export money and other sources of income due to sanctions.