Russian money piles up abroad amid US pressure on trade payments

Proceeds from Russian exports are accumulating abroad due to increasing delays in international trade settlements caused by US pressure on financial institutions in countries that remain friendly to the Kremlin.

Foreign financial assets increased by almost $60 billion in the first 11 months of 2024 compared with $43 billion in the same period the previous year, according to Bank of Russia data published Thursday. In November, they increased for the third month in a row.

The central bank has pointed to an increased lag in foreign trade payments as the cause for the buildup in Russian companies’ accounts receivable.


Despite longer delays and increasing disruptions in payments to and from trading partners, there hasn’t been a drop in Russia’s foreign commercial volumes. Exports amounted to $386 billion in the first 11 months, mostly in line with the same period a year ago. Imports declined by 3% to $267.5 billion in January-November, but still recovered for the third month in a row, increasing by 6.6% in November after a 17.5% gain in the previous month.

Russia has largely redirected its foreign trade eastward since it began the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The US in November took aim at the remaining conduits for Russia’s international trade payments, imposing penalties on some 50 Russian banks that still had connections to the global financial system. That included Gazprombank, which serviced payments for Russian gas exports.

The move caused the ruble to slump by more than 10% in November, the central bank’s data show, but trade remained largely stable.

Russian exporters and importers have been suffering from difficulties with international payments since the end of 2023, when the US intensified pressure on financial institutions working with Russia through the threat of so-called secondary sanctions.

As a result, direct payments to and from Russia’s main trading partners have mostly ground to a halt. Russia still conducts a thriving trade in commodities through intermediaries that is often paid in rubles.