Deripaska announced the "empty treasury of Russia"

The Russian businessman, the sanctions oligarch and billionaire Oleg Deripaska said that “the Russian treasury could be empty in 2023” and the country will be forced to rely on the influx of foreign investment from “friendly” countries. The founder of Rusala made such a statement during the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum (KEF), Bloomberg reports .

“The next year there will be no money. We will need foreign investors, ”the billionaire said during his speech on the forum.

Deripaska believes that the implementation of such a forecast is almost inevitable. He considers the recent initiatives of the government to introduce new taxes to large Russian companies and an attempt to withdraw money in the form of one -time tax fees by direct evidence that the money is ending.

“Therefore, we have already begun to shake us,” Deripaska said, commenting on the initiative of the government.

The billionaire believes that without foreign investments, the economy will face extremely serious difficulties, since foreign sanctions are currently carrying serious risks of economy stagnation, which only foreign capital can help to help. The agency notes that Deripaska’s speech is one of the most frank performances of representatives of major Russian business since the beginning of the war and especially against the backdrop of the government’s desire to collect more taxes from Russian entrepreneurs.

The sanctions oligarch also categorically opposed the construction of “state capitalism” in Russia - on the contrary, in his opinion, the government should focus on maintaining a free market economy. Deripaska believes that only this approach, coupled with business guarantees and foreign investors, can significantly change the current situation in a positive way.

“Russia must continue to develop a market economy. A foreign investor will watch how the Russian investor earns money, what conditions exist, ”he explained the logic of his speech.

The billionaire urges the government to create conditions for foreign investors and countries that have “serious resources” and can become partners of Russia. In the opinion of Deripaska, it is possible to attract such players by creating a safe business climate with more economic freedom and competition. The oligarch made it clear that we are talking about eastern countries, since it was there that about 4.5 billion people live and a total of GDP of $ 30 trillion.

“We thought we were a European country. Now over the next 25 years we will think more about our Asian past, ”the businessman said.

Western sanctions were a serious problem for the Russian authorities. Despite the rhetoric of President Vladimir Putin that the authorities managed to maintain stability, and the economic effect of sanctions was not fatal to the economy, the government in January recorded a record budget deficit from the 1998 default. Now the authorities urgently seek ways to replenish the budget in 2023. In 2022, the authorities had already carried out several tax tightening, which were supposed to increase revenues to the budget, and in 2023 they stopped at a one -time contribution to the Russian budget by business, the size of which has not yet been approved.