Russian watchdog urges foreign countries to allow capital return

MOSCOW, Mar 23 (PRIME) -- The Federal Financial Monitoring Service has started working with other countries which block return of capital to Russia and has called upon Russians to return capital before capital amnesty is launched, Director Yury Chikhanchin told President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

“I think that one should not wait for capital amnesty, capital should be returned,” he said.

On March 19, Putin said that some countries may block the return of capital to Russia, and Chikhanchin confirmed Putin’s concerns by mentioning letters that Russian businessmen with accounts in foreign countries have lately received.

“Those ‘good luck letters’, which came in, say, England, to Russian residents who have accounts is nothing but a signal that all Russians who have accounts there were asked to prove the nature of their money,” he said, adding that foreign countries’ may use such mechanisms like financial investigations and criminal cases.

“And, in general, it will not allow us to return the money in a regime in which we would like to do it.”

In December 2014, Putin ordered the government to develop the law on amnesty of capital by mid-July 2015.

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