Billions of rubles have been wiped off the Russian stock market following Donald Trump’s historic decision to impose tariffs on almost all of the USA’s trading partners. Although Russia was spared from the tariff list, which Trump presented in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) had £18.3bn wiped off its market capitalisation by Friday.
The MOEX Russia Index lost 8.05% over the week. Not since September 2022, when markets were troubled by the Kremlin’s announcement of mass mobilisation for the war in Ukraine, did the index fall further. According to Yelena Kozhukhova, an analyst at Moscow-based Veles Capital, a global trade war, sparked by Trump’s tariffs, could be catastrophic for Russia.
She explained that rampant inflation caused by a future trade war would hit Russia’s economy hard because it relies on commodity exports. To make matters worse, Forbes has reported several Russian billionaires have moved their money overseas amid the economic carnage causes by the war in Ukraine.
According to Forbes’ latest list of the wealthiest billionaires, 24 Russians have ditched the Russian flag and instead present themselves as citizens of other European and Asian nations. Kyrylo Shevchenko, former Chief of the National Bank of Ukraine, claims Russian billionaires have siphoned a combined £85billion out of the country.
The former banking chief, who left his post in 2022, wrote on X: “24 billionaires once hailed as Russian have quietly rebranded themselves abroad — taking $110bn (£85bn) in combined wealth with them. In the latest Forbes ranking, they no longer appear under the Russian flag.
Later in the post, he wrote: “This mass rebranding isn’t just cosmetic — it’s a calculated retreat from the political and financial risks of Russian citizenship post-invasion. While Russia’s billionaires collectively reached a record $625.5B in wealth, at least six have formally renounced their passports.”
