The oligarch says Russia may run out of money in 2024

London (CNN) Outspoken Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska said Russia could be without money as early as next year and would need foreign investment.

“Already next year there won’t be any money, we need foreign investors,” he said at an economic conference in Siberia on Thursday, according to statements by the Russian news agency TASS.

Declarations of milliardaires – who are appelé à la fin de la guerre of Moscou in Ukraine, in the first days of the Conflit de l’année dernière – contrairement in the evaluation plus optimiste of the economic fortune of the Russian by the president Vladimir Poutine last week. Putin praised the resilience of the country’s economy in the face of unprecedented Western sanctions imposed last year.

Russia’s economic output contracted 2.1% last year, according to a preliminary government estimate. The contraction was more limited than many economists initially expected.

But cracks are starting to appear — Russia will cut oil production this month — and Western sanctions could get sharper. Ultimately, Russia’s economic prospects depend on what happens in Ukraine.

Deripaska said that foreign investors, especially from “friendly” countries, have a big role to play. He was quoted as saying that their coming depends on Russia’s ability to create the right conditions and make its markets attractive.

In an effort to deny Russia the funds needed for its aggression, Western countries have announced more than 11,300 sanctions since the invasion in February 2022 and have frozen some $300 billion of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves.

But China has captured the Kremlin’s economic lifeline by buying up Russian energy, substituting Western suppliers for basic machinery and metals, among other products, and offering an alternative to the US dollar.

always, Moscow has a steep hill to climb to replace revenue lost as a result of sanctions, especially from exports. Data released on Friday showed that EU imports from Russia fell by 51% in value between February and December last year. The bloc was one of the main trading partners For Russia before the invasion of Ukraine, where 38% of Russian exports went to the EU in 2020.

Russian government revenue fell 35% in January compared to a year ago, while spending jumped 59%, leaving a budget deficit of about 1.761 billion rubles ($23.3 billion).

Déripaska made his fortune trading aluminum during the chaotic scramble for assets after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2018, he was punished by the United States, which noted that the oligarchy is “inseparable from the Russian state.” Last year, he was charged with alleged violations of US sanctions.

Forbes estimates Deripaska’s current net worth to be less than $3 billion.

Anna Chernova contributed reporting.