Under Decree No. 193, since April 1 individuals have been prohibited from taking rubles to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union in an amount of $100,000 or more in equivalent at the Central Bank’s exchange rate on the relevant date. Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs have not been able to export currency since April regardless of the amount.
Since May, the decree has also generally prohibited individuals from taking bullion out of Russia with a total weight of more than 100 grams. At the same time, the document provides for exceptions, including when exporting currency through international airports in Russia designated by the government, and when bank statements certified by the issuing credit institution are available.
Shablya said that the decree “will, we hope, also be refined and modified in the near future”, because practice shows the need to “bring even more order” to this area. He added that for amounts above the limit, supporting documents are needed showing that the money previously passed through the banking system, was withdrawn from an account, or was received as a loan or a microfinance organization loan.
According to Alexey Yakovlev, director of the Finance Ministry’s Department of Financial Policy, the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank, together with the Federal Customs Service, intend to create a unified information corpus. It should make it possible to verify the authenticity of documents and track cases of cash export under the same document in order to prevent its repeated use.
Yakovlev said that the planned changes are aimed at improving operational efficiency. He declined to comment on whether the threshold values of the restrictions will change; currently, the EAEU includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
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