While Americans Hoarded Toilet Paper, Hand Sanitizer and Masks, Russians Withdrew $13.6B in Cash from ATMs

Authored by newsweek.com and submitted by madazzahatter
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Russians have withdrawn more than $13 billion in cash from their bank accounts since early March amid fears over the coronavirus crisis, according to a report.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 The amount totaled more than was withdrawn in the whole of 2019.

According to Bloomberg, daily spikes in withdrawals came around the time Russian President Vladimir Putin detailed measures that would be imposed to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.

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 in Russia stockpiled money for the same reason those in other countries panic bought food and other scarce items amid fears of a lockdown, according to one analyst.

"People were afraid that banks will be unavailable during the quarantine," Denis Poryvay, an analyst at Raiffeisenbank in Moscow, told the website. "They withdrew money for the same reason as people hoarded food."

The hoarding of cash came despite Russian officials urging people and businesses to use digital payments rather than cash in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Last month, consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor urged Russians to switch to cashless payments, citing advice from the World Health Organization that said the virus can linger on banknotes for several days, according to Reuters.

But until late March, Russian officials had claimed there was "no epidemic" in the country, the BBC reported, and reported far fewer cases than many European nations.

But as infections started to rise sharply, Putin extended a paid non-working period for Russians until April 30.

A lockdown was declared in Moscow, the epicenter of the country's outbreak, on March 30, banning residents from venturing outside their home unless it was to go to an essential job, to buy food or medicine, receive urgent treatment or walk their dogs. Several other cities and regions have since imposed lockdown measures.

In a televised Orthodox Easter address to Russians on Sunday, Putin continued to maintain the outbreak is completely under control in Russia despite recording more than 6,000 new cases in the past 24 hours—a new one-day record for the nation, according to The Moscow Times.

"All levels of authorities are working rhythmically, in an organized way and responsibly. The situation is under full control," Putin said, according to Russian news agency TASS.

"We are carefully analyzing other countries' experience, we are actively cooperating with our foreign friends and colleagues and understand what is going on, we see risks and we know what needs to be done in any development of the situation and we do what is necessary,"

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.

kat1795 on April 19th, 2020 at 13:53 UTC »

I'm from Russia and I can tell why ppl doing this: in Russian history was a moment when because of the crisis banks closed down which meant for millions of ppl no withdrawal of money possible...Russian banks are not the stable one, so based on previous experience ppl just afraid to loose money and not able to withdraw any.

Loki-L on April 19th, 2020 at 13:29 UTC »

This is a stark contrast to how the pandemic affected things in other countries.

Personally I have not handled any cash in over a month.

Where I live everyone is paying electronically to avoid passing virus-laden cash between people.

Hoarding cash seems like people are more afraid of their government messing up their economy than of catching the deadly virus.

rcxRbx on April 19th, 2020 at 11:36 UTC »

They probably knew their government would fuck them over if there was a crisis lmao.