Putin compared giving microcredits with the "grandmother from Dostoevsky"

Bankers who provide citizens with microloans at gigantic interests behave worse than the old men-percentages from Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council on the problems of consumer protection problems, Interfax reports.

“Indeed, a famous grandmother from Dostoevsky is a very modest person compared to our today's usurers,” the head of state noted.

Putin indicated that in some cases, interest on small loans is hundreds of percent; For example, on a loan for 30 thousand rubles for up to 30 days - 800%.

The President of the Russian Federation urged to tighten the legislation in the field of lending to the population and prevent situations when "people, as they say, take these loans indiscriminately." “Law enforcement agencies are required to clear the financial services market from various kinds of illegal fraudulent offices,” he added.

In January 2017, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill spoke out against microloans, who called the issuing such loans “world -eaters” who “undermine the idea of ​​social justice with their greed”. The Patriarch noted that "this is an absolutely immoral practice of usury in its most predatory manifestation."

According to the National Bureau of Credit History, as of January 1, 2017, the total volume of microcredits to the population of the Russian Federation reached 120.8 billion rubles. For comparison, as of January 1, 2016, the volume of microloans to Russians amounted to 69.2 billion rubles.