Moscow Kremlin has admitted on Wednesday that the Russian economy is taking “serious blows,” , as the country’s growing isolation piles further pressure on its financial system.
Apple, ExxonMobil, Ford, Boeing and Airbus joined a list of companies shutting down or suspending their operations in Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Ensuing Western sanctions, and the European arm of Russia’s biggest bank collapsed following a run on its deposits.
The ruble weakened again to trade at 112 to the US dollar.
“Russia’s economy is experiencing serious blows,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a call with foreign journalists.
“But there is a certain margin of safety, there is potential, there are some plans, work is underway.”
Peskov was responding to a question about US President Joe Biden’s remark in his State of the Union speech that the Russian economy had been left “reeling” from sanctions.
Sberbank , Russia’s biggest lender, said Wednesday it was quitting Europe, with the exception of Switzerland, after banking regulators in Austria forced the closure of its Vienna-based EU subsidiary.
The European Central Bank had warned earlier this week that Sberbank Europe was likely to fail after depositors rushed to withdraw their money following the imposition of Western sanctions on much of Russia’s financial system.
Sberbank said its subsidiaries had faced “an exceptional outflow of funds and a number of safety concerns regarding its employees and offices,” the group said in a statement, adding it had been prevented from bailing them out by an order from the Russian central bank.
