Aug 10, 2026

Russians are increasingly using accounts with foreign brokers to transfer money out of Russia. Such transfers have increased significantly since the end of 2024. From December 2024 to June, Russian households transferred almost 600 billion rubles to accounts with non-resident brokers—more than in the seven years since the beginning of 2018, when the Central Bank began publishing this data . According to the regulator’s statistics, in April-June, these transfers amounted to 42.3-45.5 billion rubles, or more than $500 million per month.

A significant portion of these transactions involve moving money out of the country. Dmitry Isakov, founder of the investment platform Lender Invest, estimated that they account for approximately 40% of transfers to non-resident brokerage accounts. Of these, he observed, three-quarters are so-called “parking solutions,” where a brokerage account is used as an alternative to a foreign currency bank account, while the remaining quarter are related to “capital relocation” in the event of a move or children’s education abroad—in this case, the brokerage account serves as the first link in the future chain of transfers.

This is being driven by tightening sanctions and a tougher attitude toward Russian funds in Western banks. Yulia Khandoshko, head of the European broker Mind Money called “brokerage cases” essentially “quasi-banking operations”: not “substitution or manipulation,” but simply “a different format of operation.” Moreover, opening a brokerage account is much easier than a bank account, which has become a problem, especially after the EU blacklisted Russia late last year as a country with poor anti-money laundering practices.

However, the tightening of rules for working with Russian money also affects brokers. Scalable Capital, one of Europe’s largest players, is notifying Russians of the imminent closure of their accounts.

Russians often use brokers from EAEU countries, primarily Kazakhstan and Armenia. Foreign brokers, particularly in EAEU countries, have become the most accessible and convenient channel for transferring funds abroad, noted independent financial advisor Natalya Smirnova: through them, you can withdraw rubles from Russia to an account in the EAEU or even Cyprus, and from there transfer them to a bank account in another country. It’s important to understand that the receiving bank will request the source of the funds and may not accept such funds, she emphasized, “but this is more relevant for deposits into bank accounts in Europe.” She personally  uses  an account with a Cypriot broker to withdraw rubles from Russia to the EU.

Russians also use foreign brokers for their intended purpose – for investments. Since the start of the war, the Russian stock market has fallen more often than it has risen: since the beginning of 2022, the Moscow Exchange index has lost more than 40%. Furthermore, foreign markets offer investors the opportunity to diversify their portfolios by including stocks from sectors not represented on Russian exchanges and reduce country risk. Before the war, this didn’t require an account with a foreign broker: shares of American, European, Chinese, and other companies were easily purchased for rubles on the St. Petersburg and Moscow exchanges. These investments have been frozen – for a total of over 1.5 million people. The Central Bank doesn’t disclose the value of these assets; at the end of 2022, it was estimated at almost a trillion rubles.

https://ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/08/10/rossiyane-nashli-novii-sposob-vivoda-kapitala-i-otpravlyayut-inostrannim-brokeram-po-500-millionov-v-mesyats-a203099