Russians have withdrawn more than $13 billion in cash from their bank accounts since early March amid fears over the coronavirus crisis, according to a report.
Around 1 trillion rubles ($13.6 billion) was taken out of ATMs and bank branches in Russia over the past seven weeks, Bloomberg reported.
The amount totaled more than was withdrawn in the whole of 2019.
One instance was when Putin announced a tax on bank deposits of more than 1 million rubles and when he extended self-isolation measures until May.
"People were afraid that banks will be unavailable during the quarantine," Denis Poryvay, an analyst at Raiffeisenbank in Moscow, told the website.
But as infections started to rise sharply, Putin extended a paid non-working period for Russians until April 30.
Russia has more than 42,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and 361 deaths, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University. »
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