Residents of Russia transferred almost US$6 billion abroad in the first quarter of 2007, according to the Central Bank's statistics.

Residents of Russia transferred almost $6 billion abroad in the first quarter of 2007, according to the Central Bank's statistics. Money transferred abroad in 2006 amounted to almost $18.8 billion, compared to $12.5 billion in 2005. Of the total, about two-thirds was transferred by Russian citizens, and the remainder by non-residents. The Central Bank observed no radical shifts in the patterns of incoming money – $6.5 billion entered Russia in 2005, and $7.5 billion in 2006. The leading destinations for money from Russia are the Netherlands (over $1 billion) and China ($616 million). The Chinese figure corresponds to Chinese workers and business people based in Russia who are sending it back to China. Money transferred in the opposite direction, from China to Russia, amounted to $16 million. In contrast, the funds sent to the Netherlands were primarily from Russian citizens and only $34 million flowed back. Given the Netherlands’ position as an onshore tax planning centre, the figure represents corporate money flowing out of Russia to a country with more favourable tax conditions.