In a lengthy Jan. 13 article published on BusinessOnline, the prominent Russian economist Sergey Glazyev, today the Commissioner for Integration and Macroeconomics within the Eurasian Economic Commission, the executive body of the Eurasian Economic Union, warns that in the Ukraine situation “the transition to a long trench war … is fraught with disaster for the Russian world.” He proposes that Russia shift to a war-winning strategy, which requires among other things addressing the economy’s Achilles heel of continuing capital flight and links to the international speculative financial system. (https://www.business-gazeta.ru/amp/579646?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email)
Glazyev lays the blame for this destructive policy squarely on the Bank of Russia and its head Elvira Nabiullina (although he never mentions her by name), for facilitating the continuing looting of Russia through the export of capital, sabotaging President Vladimir Putin’s stated intentions. He goes so far as to charge that “the NATO war against Russia is paid for by the Bank of Russia.”
The picture Glazyev paints is stark.
“Following the seizure of more than $300 billion in reserves, the leadership of the Bank of Russia continued to condone the export of capital, the volume of which exceeded $200 billion last year. Of this, $150 billion are payments abroad authorized by the monetary authorities on the debt obligations of Russian enterprises. Basically, in the jurisdiction of unfriendly countries that have begun to confiscate our foreign exchange reserves in order to use them to pay off military loans to Ukraine. Is it possible to win a war with an enemy many times superior in financial power by supplying him with money received from the export of raw materials to his own address?” Glazyev asks bitingly.
“The cumulative outflow of capital and the seizure of foreign exchange reserves through the fault of the leadership of the Bank of Russia … last year exceeded half a trillion dollars, which is many times more than the entire defense budget of Russia. Taking into account the fact that the NATO countries officially declared the beginning of the procedure for the confiscation of this money in order to finance the costs of repaying loans issued to Ukraine, we have to state that the NATO war against Russia is paid for by the Bank of Russia. Moreover, this is being done contrary to the political will of the state, formulated in the spring decrees of the President to stop the export of capital to unfriendly countries and introduce the full sale of exporters’ foreign exchange earnings.”
