The wealth held offshore by wealthy Russians was equivalent to 75 percent of the country’s national income by 2015, a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) claims.
The NBER study, authored by prominent economists including Thomas Piketty, maps the distribution of income and wealth in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The authors said capital flight had increased since 1990, reaching about 75 percent of national income by 2015, or the equivalent of the total financial assets of Russian households.
Offshore wealth is roughly three times larger than official net foreign reserves, the report adds.
“There is as much financial wealth held by rich Russians abroad—in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Cyprus, and similar offshore centers—than held by the entire Russian population in Russia itself,” the report said.