Attempts to smuggle money out of Russia increase by 93%

Russians have tried twice as often to smuggle money abroad illegally since the partial mobilisation was announced.

According to information obtained by Izvestiya newspaper from the Federal Customs Service (FCS), on September 20-30 of this year, 557 cases of illegal transportation of cash across the border were revealed, which is 93 per cent more than during the same period in 2021. It is related to the cases when Russians do not declare or specify incorrectly the amount of transported money, and about violation of the ban on the export of foreign currency from Russia over $10,000, the press service of the FCS said. Almost every second violation (213) detected during the specified period fell under the latter, the press service of the FCS noted.

As a result of the violations revealed over the last ten days of September, 549 administrative cases were initiated and 11 criminal cases were opened, the press service reported. At the same time, the total amount of illegally transported money in all these cases in the ruble equivalent reached 160.5 million rubles, which is 63 per cent more than in the same period last year.

The FCS attributes the increase in the number of violations to the passenger traffic hike, as well as the inability to make money transfers through banks and use Russian cards in a number of countries due to unfriendly measures taken by them.

According to the FCS, the Russian ruble was the main currency that was involved in the violations revealed at the end of September - it accounted for more than 50 per cent of cases. Next in popularity are euros and US dollars. It is noted that most often money was exported to Türkiye, UAE, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

The recorded violations are the result of the low financial literacy of citizens and a lack of knowledge of safe ways to transfer funds, experts say.