Russia is experiencing an unprecedented wave of deposit withdrawals as citizens race to pull their savings from banks, fearing the Kremlin may seize private accounts to fund its prolonged war in Ukraine. Central bank data shows that cash outflows from the banking system have accelerated sharply since the start of 2026, with withdrawals reaching approximately $25 billion in the first seven months of the year, according to Sberbank vice president and chief financial officer.
The withdrawal pace has intensified month by month. In June, Russians pulled 216 billion rubles ($2.35 billion) from their accounts. July saw 226 billion rubles ($2.47 billion) leave the system. By August, the rate had doubled, with the central bank reporting that 300 billion rubles ($3.4 billion) were withdrawn in the first two weeks alone, putting the month on track to far exceed previous records. Five of Russia’s seven largest banks have recorded net outflows of individual deposits over the past four months.
Which Banks Are Losing Deposits
Gazprombank has been hardest hit, losing 299.5 billion rubles (3.04 billion euros), representing 10.8% of its total deposits. Rosselkhozbank shed 270.5 billion rubles (2.75 billion euros), a decline of more than 15%. Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest private lender, lost 179.4 billion rubles (1.82 billion euros), or 5.6% of deposits. Sovcombank and VTB recorded further outflows of 81.7 billion rubles and 20.4 billion rubles respectively.
The flight from banks is being driven by two overlapping fears. First, Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries and logistics infrastructure have deepened the economic crisis, with petrol available at just 28% of filling stations nationwide by mid-August. Second, and more fundamentally, Russians fear the government may move to confiscate private savings to cover mounting war costs. That fear is not unfounded: Russian prosecutors transferred approximately $51.5 billion in private assets to state control last year, according to the Washington Post. In June, authorities seized around $7.6 billion in assets linked to billionaire Vadim Moshkovich, founder of agricultural holding company Rusagro.
Pension Fund Legislation Raises Alarm
The finance ministry is preparing legislation that could give the state access to $40 billion in pension savings held in privately managed funds, according to the Fortune. Simultaneously, Putin has been extracting what officials describe as voluntary “donations” from oligarchs, with hundreds of billions of rubles flowing into the federal budget by mid-August, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported.
Large companies are also moving money beyond the reach of domestic regulators, with more than $9.4 billion flowing out of Russia’s banking system in the second quarter of 2026 alone, according to central bank data. “It means people have no trust in the Russian banking system or in the Russian financial system,” said Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser to the Russian Central Bank. “This is all a consequence of the fear that the government will do something with the banking system, that it could nationalize deposits.”
Economy Stagnates as Recession Looms
The deposit flight comes against a backdrop of severe economic deterioration. Russia’s GDP expanded just 0.3% in the first half of 2026, compared with 1.2% in the same period last year, according to the Kremlin’s own data. The International Monetary Fund projects full-year growth of 1.1%, while the Bank of Russia has cut its forecast to a range of 0% to 1%. The central bank has raised its 2026 inflation forecast to 6% to 7%, well above its formal 4% target.
Sberbank CEO Herman Gref warned that the economy had entered a phase of “technical stagnation,” arguing that the central bank’s policy rate was above the threshold at which businesses can attract investment. “10 to 12 percent is the critical threshold that separates us from the investment cycle,” Gref said at a Moscow Exchange forum.
Top Economist Fired for Speaking Truth
Andrei Klepach, chief economist at state development corporation VEB.RF for 12 years, was fired in August after presenting a report warning that Russia cannot win a prolonged war of attrition against Ukraine. Speaking at the Moscow Exchange’s Nikitsky Club in May, Klepach said Russia is “losing not only to China and the United States, but in some ways, we’re losing to Ukraine.” He added: “We won’t win the competition in this war of attrition. We’re under the illusion that everything will collapse. It hasn’t, and it won’t. Meanwhile, the costs we bear are mounting.”
An anonymous source told The Bell that Klepach was dismissed after VEB.RF leadership received a phone call “from above,” suggesting the Kremlin ordered his firing. The incident underscores the Kremlin’s intolerance for internal dissent on the economic trajectory of the war, even as the data increasingly confirms the pessimistic assessments.
The central bank has been forced to expand emergency lending to the banking sector to shore up rouble liquidity drained by the withdrawal wave. The Bank of Russia’s deposit rate monitoring for the first ten days of August showed maximum household deposit rates at 12.89%, reflecting the high cost of retaining customer funds. Total withdrawals this year could nearly double the amount taken out in the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to Sberbank senior executive Taras Skvortsov.
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