Essentially it seems foreigners from unfriendly countries are going to have a hard time with savings and deposit accounts in Russia.
Some of the Telegram channels I follow are already showing banks have already begun restricting savings accounts.
From the looks of it, this decree is being enforced (notably by T-Bank) in relation to bank deposits (вклады) as well as savings accounts (накопительные счеты). The new decree itself refers to “банковским вкладам (депозитам)” without further elaboration.
According to these lawyers, the decree affects “Only bank deposits, but not ordinary debit card accounts.”
If that interpretation is correct, the best strategy for a non-resident foreigner with money in a Russian savings account (i.e. an easy-access накопительный счет) is to move that money onto the debit card account as soon as possible. That will lose the possibility to earn any interest, but it does at least mean you can withdraw the funds and they won’t be frozen for years to come.
So far, I have only seen references to enforcement of this decree by T-Bank (there are numberous complaints about this from the bank’s clients on banki.ru over recent days). Anyone aware of similar stories from impacted clients at other Russian banks?
Anyone from a so called unfriendly country even contemplating putting money in a Russian bank of any description needs to book themselves in for immediate therapy
Why? I’m from an “unfriendly” country, but I’m friendly, so Russia appreciates me.
I have several Russian bank accounts and I move money in and out all the time.
I help support my family members. Why am I in need of immediate therapy?
The banks love me, too. They get to charge me rubles to move my money around, and for maintenance, and insurance.
I’m a good client.
Ordinary debit card accounts are what most people get.
I’m not sure Decree 377 will affect the ordinary person. I pulled this from a Russian law site:
Prior to adoption of Decree No. 377, the special procedure under Decree No. 95 primarily applied to
obligations in excess of RUB 10 million (ca USD 135k/EUR 117k) per calendar month (or the foreign
currency equivalent) limit under credits, loans, securities and other financial instruments.
Starting from June 01, 2026, obligations owed to foreign creditors related to “unfriendly” states in
connection with bank deposits will also fall under this regime. In practical terms, we understand that
the amended regime may now cover the repayment of bank deposits and the payment of interest
accrued on such deposits by Russian banks to foreign creditors related to “unfriendly” states.
Consequently, payments exceeding the statutory threshold will now need to be settled through a
special type “C” account mechanism or otherwise require countersanctions approval from the SubCommission/Bank of Russia.
So if any non-friendly out there is making millions of rubles in interest each month, they would probably get their money routed through the special type “C” account and then you can contact the government to try and get your money.
@Cal Prior to adoption of Decree No. 377, the special procedure under Decree No. 95 primarily applied to
obligations in excess of RUB 10 million (ca USD 135k/EUR 117k) per calendar month (or the foreign
This is a widespread misconception. The cap of 10 million roubles applies per bank, not per customer. It refers to the total size of the liabilities that any bank has to all its western clients collectively. This means that the cap has little practical relevance, because any significant Russian bank exceeds the cap.
This is why T-Bank has been freezing the accounts of numerous western retail clients with only relatively small amounts (banki.ru is full of complaints from customers with, say, 100,000 roubles or 200,000 roubles in frozen deposits or savings accounts).
See the explanation given here by a T-Bank rep (the answer at the bottom, by Anna Doronina). She is referring to an official central bank explanation of the 10 million rouble cap established by Decree 95:
https://www.banki.ru/services/questions-answers/question/1064597/
@Cal What absoluts tosh, you seriously think that your money is not at risk in any of these banks? Wake up and smell the coffee you absolute clown
@Cal In May it was the most amount of money Russians withdrew cash from bank accounts for 8 years as nobody trusts the banks. And we have one clown on here preaching how great they are! Get yourself some Nesafe Cal and wake up.
@Cal I’m sure all the clients whose funds have been frozen at T-Bank felt exactly the same way. The decree does not distinguish between friendly and unfriendly people from “unfriendly” states. If your funds are frozen, good luck trying to persuade a government commission that you are a special case.
If you only have money in debit card accounts you are lucky, but many ordinary people will have placed funds in interest-bearing Накопительные счета. These were easy-access accounts that function exactly the same as current accounts for receiving payments. Banks such as T-Bank have actively promoted these accounts to retail customers.
There is certainly a significant risk that Russian banks will also freeze debit card accounts. Putin’s decree is extremely vague (it only adds three new words to the previous decree, including bank “deposits” within the scope of the asset freezes).
Although Russian banks typically use the term “deposit” to refer to savings accounts, the normal meaning of the term includes non-interest bearing accounts. For example, this is how the Bank of Russia uses the term in its banking sector reports.
I’m from Italy and i decided to close all my bank account in Russia so im not gonna worry about… and now every time i fly Russia or need to buy something from Russia (my girlfriend lives there) i just use Pir.
Much easier and no worries
I’m very happy with my Russian bank accounts. The only tosh here seems to be the militant Brit that not only insults foreigners who use Russian bank accounts, but also - in turn - the millions of Russians who use bank accounts. And she does this on a Russian community forum that is designed to help others. So swallow that with your fresh scones with clotted cream and jam at the next tea service. I’m very happy so far with my Russian banks, and it has been years. They are very responsive, and care about the customer. If I need help, I go into chat and they always take the time to find me an English speaker. I keep my balance way below the 10K limit, so I never have to file any forms back in the USA.
@Cal What an absolute clown, this forum is for information about living in Russia in difficult times and realistic advice from people who have experienced it. Your BS propoganda is not welcome here. Trying to convince people that Russian banks are fit for purpose…you must be living in a cocoon!
@Cal Fresh Scones and Clotted cream are fantastic you absolute clown.
@Tsar_Vlad what do you mean by using Pir? What’s this?
@Learned_Capibara Pir is PayInRussia, a service that lets foreigners use their own national bank account to make various kinds of payments in Russia. By “various kinds” I mean booking hotels and flights, paying at restaurants via QR code, or at museums… for example, for me the big advantage was being able to use Yandex services for food and taxis.
Essentially, I had the same benefits as having a Russian national bank account, with the difference that opening this account took me just 5 minutes, i never used cash since then…
@Jabod When I skimmed the expat Telegram groups, there were also people saying that their money had been trapped in interest-bearing accounts at VTB and Alfa. There may have been other banks mentioned, but I didn’t study the chats very carefully. Regardless, I was able to move my funds out of my VTB interest-bearing account into a non-interest-bearing account.
I’m arriving in Saint Petersburg around July 20th and should be there for at least two months (staying by the train station). Then I’ll probably spend another two months in either Saint Petersburg or Southern Russia. Let me know if anyone wants to connect (secondary TG: NomadicHedgie).
@Tsar_Vlad Thanks for sharing this. Do you know what fees they charge? The USDT/RUB exchange rate they offered me seemed to match the mid-market rate. But there must be more fees later, or maybe they profit from people that leave unused balances on their cards?
@NomadicHedgie The slide deck says up to 10% but doesn’t specify exactly. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QOYq3WNE4kzQpViMBdV0R9AZIByhVO84 - if the fees are 10% it would be a good backup but not a good primary if you can bring cash and put it in a non-interest bank account.
@traveladdict Agreed. If they aren’t willing to be transparent about their fees upfront, it’s usually a red flag
@NomadicHedgie my guess is their fees are dynamic based on the interchange fees of the card and maybe the country of issue. So maybe they charge like a fixed percent and then bump it up based on interchange fees for each individual card. They can vary wildly from like 0.2% for debit cards up to 3.5% (or maybe more these days) for the fancy credit cards with lots of benefits. Maybe it says more in the app. I haven’t downloaded it yet.
Another thing to keep in mind is what FX do they give when you exchange your foreign currency to Rubles in the app. If you’re paying let’s say 8% in fees but then the FX is a 4% difference from the bank rate, it’s like your fees are 12%.