More Russians now pick cash over bank deposits for savings as cross-border transfers draw tougher penalties

In September, 38% of Russians named cash as the best way to keep their savings, compared with 37% who chose banks, the Russian financial Telegram channel Bankrollo reported. Respondents said cash gives them direct access to their money and protects them from account blocks. The shift was already under way in August. A survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, a Russian polling group, found 37% preferred cash that month, the highest share since October 2022. Only 36% chose bank accounts and deposits, the lowest since December 2022, Novaya Gazeta Europe reported. The same report said more than half of Russian banks had recorded deposit outflows.

The state is making it harder to move money out. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, Russia's lower house, called the transfer of money abroad an aggravating circumstance, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday. In Russian law, an aggravating circumstance increases the sentence for a crime. The state agency's headline did not say whether a bill has been filed.

Penalties are also rising on the other side of the border. A court in Riga sentenced Polina Kamlyova, an activist from the Latvian town of Rezekne, to six years in prison, Kommersant reported. She had transferred 43 euros to a Russian account to buy a device that suppresses drones. Kommersant, a Russian business daily, emphasized the small size of the sum in its coverage. The ruling, as reported, rested on what the money was for.