Russia rolled out a similar amnesty program during the worst of the conflict in Ukraine, which coincided with a plunge in oil prices that triggered the country’s longest recession of the Putin era. That 18-month initiative, the results of which haven’t been disclosed, “didn’t work as well as we’d hoped,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
Unlike that plan, this one waives Russia’s 13 percent tax on personal income, according to Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman.
“We and our entrepreneurs have repeatedly faced unjustified and illegal asset freezes under the guise of sanctions,” Peskov said on a conference call Tuesday. “The president’s initiative aims to create comfortable conditions for businesses if they want to use this opportunity to repatriate their capital.”
Oligarch List
Since the U.S. and EU first imposed sanctions on Russia for stoking the rebellion in eastern Ukraine and annexing Crimea, the Kremlin has sought to play down the impact of the penalties, rarely admitting worry. But that’s beginning to change.
Last week, after the U.S. added several prominent Russians to its sanctions list, Putin approved a plan first proposed by business leaders to issue special bonds designed to give the wealthy a way to hold their dollar assets out of the reach of the U.S. Treasury.
And on Monday, Peskov warned that additional sanctions could lead to “unbearable risks and dangers” for relations with the U.S., which he said are already in a “pitiful state.”