Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska said Moscow is running out of money amid Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and is likely to have no financial stability until 2024. If Russia receives investment from “friendly” countries, the impact of Western sanctions could be mitigated amid the Ukraine war, the elite added.
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The energy and metals tycoon, once called Russia’s richest man, said: “There will be no money already next year. We will need foreign investors”, speaking at an investment conference in Siberia. Oleg Deripaska has also been affected by the sanctions imposed against Russia by the US, UK and EU.
Bloomberg reported that Oleg Deripaska said that funds were running low and “that’s why they (the Russian government) have already started moving us”. The oligarch also said that Russia is facing “serious” pressure due to Western sanctions and that the country needs to look to other countries that have “serious resources” to invest in.
“We thought we were a European country. Now, for the next 25 years, we will think more about our Asian past,” said Oleg Deripaska.
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It comes as European ratings agency Scope said Russia’s budget deficit could rise to 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to Moscow’s forecast of 2% of GDP. The agency said the decline was a result of lower revenue from oil and gas exports.
“Sanctions and war are constraining Russia’s fiscal flexibility … due to lower energy export revenues, higher war-related spending and a steady decline in GDP,” Skop said, according to news agency Reuters.
“For now, Russia can finance its deficit relatively easily, reducing the national wealth fund to just 3.7 percent of GDP by the end of 2024, down from 10.4 percent of GDP at the end of 2021.” It added.
