during the rebellion of Wagner PMC, the Russians took 100 billion rubles in cash from banks – Kommersant

In June, the demand for cash in Russia grew, which led to an outflow of liquidity from banks by 500 billion rubles. During the rebellion of PMC Wagner on June 23-25, the Russians withdrew 100 billion rubles. cash, according to the materials (.pdf) Bank of Russia.

The document notes that the structural liquidity surplus decreased by 400 billion rubles, to 0.5 trillion rubles, in June. The Central Bank maintained its forecast for a structural liquidity surplus at the end of 2023 in the range of RUB 2.5 trillion to RUB 3.1 trillion.

The growth in the volume of cash in circulation does not lead to problems in the conduct of monetary policy, the Central Bank added. The regulator takes into account the outflow of liquidity when determining the parameters for conducting transactions with banks.

10 July Central Bank informedthat the Wagner rebellion had little effect on the ruble exchange rate, the surge in volatility these days was short-lived. On June 24, Russians bought foreign currency for 7.1 trillion rubles, but by the end of June, due to sales on other days, the volume of foreign currency purchases amounted to 300 million rubles.

On June 23, the head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced a “march of justice” against Moscow. The Russian authorities regarded this as an armed rebellion. The situation was resolved after negotiations with the participation of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko by the evening of June 24. Five days later, on June 29, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in the Kremlin with Mr. Prigozhin and the commanders of the Wagner PMC.

Olesya Pavlenko