Capital outflow from Russia likely to reach $8.5 billion

Nobody knows at least the approximate volume of the capital outflow from Russia

German Gref, the Economic Development Minister said the outflow of capital from Russia may make up $8.5 billion in the current year. Answering reporters' questions about the forecasts of the national development, the minister said the capital outflow would continue in 2005 too. The situation will probably change for the better only in a year or two, Gref said.

The Central Bank and the Finance Ministry evaluated mainly the legal outflow of capital. The situation is absolutely unclear about huge funds wired from Russia to foreign countries under the disguise of current operations.

Nobody knows at least the approximate volume of the money outflow from Russia. Andrey Illarionov, the economic advisor of the president, said the illegal outflow could be estimated on the level of $25 billion in 2000. The Russian Interior Affairs Ministry department for struggle with economic crime revealed another figure - $11.523 billion. The same situation happened last year too, when a lot of experts overvalued the figures exposed by the Central Bank.

The general capital outflow evaluation varies as well. President of the national investment board Alexander Lebedev said it was $100 billion. Certain committees of the Russian Duma increased the number almost five times. The situation is rather vague, but the volume of the illegal capital outflow from Russia is definitely enormous.

Nina Dzassokhova