Эссе: Consequences of offshorization of Russian economy

In today's world, the practice of using offshore business and tax havens is an integral part of the economic life of society. There are various reasons why capital tends to leave its home country — excessive tax burden, poor investment climate, lack of rule of law of private property, unstable economic and political situation.

Since the late 80's, we could observe a hasty flight of capital, first from the USSR, then from the Russian Federation. In the 90s, its size reached monstrous proportions: according to various estimates, during this period, the country was exported from 200 billion to 1 trillion. dollars'. According to experts, at the moment more than 70% of Russian production assets belong to firms registered in offshore, while in the US and the European Union no more than 10%. At the same time, not only private but also public companies register their financial companies offshore.

During the election campaign in early 2012, the issue of repatriation of capital was particularly popular: everyone spoke about the need to return money to the country-Mironov, Prokhorov and, of course, Putin. Back in December 2011, he accused a number of the country's energy companies of laundering money through offshore companies and building corruption schemes through front organizations. According to him, 'it is necessary to finish with the offshore heritage', and 'the withdrawal of the national economy, its strategic sectors from offshore money is our priority for the coming period'. It is worth noting that this task was set 10 years ago. Back in 2002, at the Congress of the chamber of Commerce and industry, the same Putin advised business to return capital from offshore without any conditions, otherwise as a result of the actions of developed countries fighting the financing of terrorism, 'you will suffer from swallowing dust, running around the courts and defrosting your funds.' Subsequently, in one of the messages to the Federal Assembly, he also said that ' money should work for our economy, and not hang out in offshore zones.'

It is obvious that the problem is very ambiguous: assessments of the phenomenon of offshoring depend on the specific interests of different groups-businesses aimed at maximizing profits and comfortable conditions for their development; wealthy citizens who use offshore shelters to hide their capitals and secrets of their origin; certain groups of ruling elites of offshore countries seeking to preserve their property and power, and, finally, conscientious taxpayers, whose interests are most consistent with the national interests. Naturally, the study of the consequences of offshoring of the Russian economy should be based primarily on the interests of the people.

In this paper, the main reasons for the leakage of Russian capital to offshore companies will be considered, the threats of offshoring and its consequences for the Russian economy will be indicated, the measures already taken and currently being taken to solve the problem will be noted.