Deripaska expects “hellish sanctions” by spring

Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire, co-owner of UC Rusal and En+, believes that US “hellish sanctions” against Russia can be expected as early as the spring of 2021. He spoke about this in an interview with Business FM. Deripaska himself lost control of UC Rusal precisely as a result of US sanctions.

“If, as a result of the American elections, we see a change of administration and the Democrats come, it is clear that all previous versions of the sanctions will seem like flowers to us. These promised “hellish sanctions” will most likely be introduced in March-April,” Deripaska said.

The billionaire has traditionally attacked the Central Bank, which, in his opinion, withdraws from Russia's development goals and does not contribute to the government's plans. “Our Central Bank behaves like a moneylender’s piggy bank: it gave as much as it has, and it also periodically sterilizes in the name of some kind of mythical fight against inflation,” he said.

The Central Bank is also acting passively on the eve of new sanctions, Deripaska argues: an alternative payment system is not provided, there are no alternative opportunities for export and import either.

According to Deripaska, "zeroing" the terms of Vladimir Putin is a new deal "between the technostructure that the president mobilized, and that part of the people who voted for him: the intelligentsia, doctors, teachers. We can say the least well-to-do part.”

The deal consists of a mandate to create a middle-class society, which Deripaska considers an average annual income of 15,000 euros as an indicator - at the level of Poland and three times higher than now in Russia. The planned GDP growth of 2.5% per year will not ensure this, he says: "We need economic growth so that the economy of today's 109 trillion rubles grows at least three times, at least, to 300 trillion."

What you need to know about future US sanctions

in detail about what sanctions against Russia are prepared in the United States spoke The Bell . The country's defense budget, the adoption of which is mandatory, includes very unpleasant packages, including the DETER Act with sanctions against state-owned banks. We talked about it in detail here .

Sanctions against Deripaska himself and the companies controlled by him were imposed by the United States on April 6, 2018. Shares of the largest of them, UC Rusal, then fell in price on the Hong Kong stock exchange by half in a matter of days. The sanctions jeopardized the international business of UC Rusal: until December 2018, the company worked for export under OFAC temporary permits .

At the beginning of 2019, the US Treasury lifted sanctions on three of Deripaska's companies - En +, UC Rusal and Eurosibenergo, but not on the billionaire himself. But for this he had to give up control in business .

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