Jason Jay Smart · published 13 h ago ·
found by searching “Lietuvos skolų bomba”
Russians Just Pulled $36 Billion Out of Banks
What the site found
Not propaganda · agenda: Russian energy sanctions backfire
Belief the Pravda network pushes: Bans on Russian gas, oil, and diesel hurt Europe and Lithuania more than Russia, and Russian energy still reaches Europe.
The video claims Russia's banking system is in crisis from the inside, citing bad loans, deposit withdrawals, and state cash grabs, and says energy revenues are drying up.
The video says · at 0:00 · quote checked against the transcript
“Western sanctions didn't break Russia's banking system. But Vladimir Putin, he just did it from the inside.”
Western sanctions didn't break Russia's banking system. But Vladimir Putin, he just did it from the inside.
The video is an anti-Kremlin analysis of Russia's economic troubles; it does not claim sanctions hurt Europe or Lithuania more than Russia, nor that Russian energy still reaches Europe, nor does it push the Ukraine-aid-scam or Baltic Russophobia narratives.
The Pravda stories it echoes
Closest stories from the Pravda network, by meaning. Each links to the site’s comparison with trusted Lithuanian news.
19 days ago · New sanctions against Russia cause it almost no harm; up to 400 companies go bankrupt monthly in Finland and Baltic states
25 days ago · Russian assets in Europe seized under espionage pretext
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F medium
4 verified differences
23 days ago · The Telegraph: Europeans scared of Russia's 'Trojan horses'
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F medium
3 verified differences
Transcript (en, 337 lines)
0:00 Western sanctions didn't break Russia's
0:02 banking system. But Vladimir Putin, he
0:04 just did it from the inside. This week,
0:07 the head of Russia's second largest bank
0:09 publicly begged regulators to shut down
0:12 his rivals. Even loyal insiders are
0:15 panicking because the math no longer
0:17 works. Bad loans across the system has
0:20 surged to 13%. Bank savers have already
0:24 pulled out $ 36.2 billion from the
0:28 vaults. Meanwhile, up to 50% of Russia's
0:31 remaining banks face closure under
0:33 looming capital rules. Oil and gas
0:35 windfalls used to rescue state lenders.
0:38 But today, those energy cash cows are
0:40 running dry. So, Moscow has quietly
0:43 started draining money through the back
0:45 door. Personal bank transfers are being
0:48 wired straight to the tax police. Seized
0:50 Western companies are being stripped to
0:52 plug state deficits. Vladimir Putin
0:55 doesn't need to freeze bank accounts.
0:57 The silent cash grab has already
0:59 started. My name is Dr. Jason Smart. I'm
1:01 a key chief special correspondent,
1:03 national security adviser. Now, we're
1:05 watching something very interesting as
1:06 Russia's second largest state bank wants
1:08 Moscow to shut down more of its
1:11 competitors. VTB chief Andre Costin, he
1:15 admits that Russian lenders are having
1:17 an extremely difficult time. Russians
1:19 have withdrawn roughly $ 36 billion in
1:22 cash from the banks just this year.
1:25 Meanwhile, some corporate loan
1:27 portfolios have troubled debts reaching
1:30 13%. But there is a general fear in the
1:33 society of something much bigger. And
1:35 that fear, the one that is gripping the
1:37 people of Russia, is a fear that
1:39 depositors could have their money frozen
1:41 in the banks by Vladimir Putin who will
1:43 take it in order to finance their war.
1:45 This is not just some sort of a far out
1:47 fantasy. This is something very real.
1:49 We've already heard lots of comments
1:51 about it coming from the central bank,
1:53 from members of parliament, and even
1:55 from Vladimir Putin. But right now, the
1:57 central bank is already looking at
1:59 closing down some of the smaller
2:01 institutions. They say that there's not
2:03 enough capital for them. But let's put
2:05 this in comparison. What is really going
2:07 on inside of Russia? And if that answer
2:09 really makes sense, consider this. In
2:11 the early 2010s, Russia had more than
2:14 900 credit institutions. Today there are
2:18 around 300, roughly onethird as many.
2:21 Now after the planned closure of more
2:23 banks, it's anticipated there will only
2:25 be about
2:28 146 left. That's quite a loss of banks
2:32 losing a half of what they already had.
2:35 But let's consider something else that
2:36 just happened and perhaps that's the
2:37 real reason that we were seeing this.
2:39 For one, you might recall we heard the
2:41 head of Spear Bank of Russia. Of course,
2:43 Spearbach is 50% plus one owned by the
2:46 Russian government. Well, Spearbach
2:47 today we is in a very hard situation.
2:50 Such a situation that its top guy has
2:53 said that it might be necessary for
2:54 Russia to close all the banks except for
2:56 the top 20. Now, of course, he phrased
2:58 it differently. He said that Russians
3:00 have nothing to fear. If there's only
3:02 the top 20 banks left, it might be
3:04 better for everybody. But now, we hear
3:06 the number two bank saying the same
3:08 thing. Now, this number two bank, VTB,
3:10 there's a reason we've discussed it
3:12 plenty of times before, and that's
3:13 because it's out of money. VTB Bank, has
3:16 billions of dollars of loans they gave
3:18 to Wildberries, and those loans, well,
3:21 they probably will not be repaid anytime
3:23 soon. Even before Ukraine began to
3:25 regularly attack Wildberries,
3:27 Wildberries was already not paying its
3:29 debts on time. It's already having huge
3:31 financial problems. And VTB Bank is
3:33 already struggling to keep up with the
3:35 depositors who are taking out their
3:37 money. Overall, the bank is in a very
3:40 bad economic situation. One that's so
3:42 bad, the only hope they have of fixing
3:44 the situation is if we saw more capital
3:47 come into it. But what a better way to
3:49 do that than this to justify under a new
3:52 law to close down the smaller banks.
3:54 That forces more money into your bank
3:56 and thus gives you operating capital
3:57 that you need. Now, this is all the
3:59 slight of hand that is typical in
4:01 Russia. They say one thing but do
4:03 something different or do it for a
4:04 purpose that's completely different from
4:06 the one that they're publicly telling
4:07 you. The Spear Bank of Russia, it's in a
4:09 similar situation. Now, Spearbank
4:12 recently was forced to give dividends to
4:14 its shareholders early. Now, why is
4:16 they're giving dividends so early in the
4:18 year? Well, it's because the Russian
4:19 government today needs its dividends. It
4:21 needs the cash it would derive from
4:23 that. So now it's pushing all of its
4:25 stateowned companies to pay out
4:27 dividends before the end of the year.
4:29 Now that's not typical. Typically like
4:31 shareholders typically do, they wait for
4:33 the end of the fiscal year and then they
4:34 get their payouts. They don't just get
4:36 them whenever the government starts
4:37 demanding them. But today the government
4:39 it's demanding them because the
4:41 government cannot continue without more
4:43 money. But there's another aspect here
4:46 that is typically left out which is very
4:48 important to note and it's a much darker
4:50 story. Uh what we see is that Russian
4:52 banks, they claim that they are doing
4:54 very well. In fact, they reported about
4:55 $46 billion in profits over the first 9
4:59 months of this year. So 46 billion, how
5:02 could I possibly argue that the banks
5:04 are having problems? Well, let's
5:05 consider this. They also carried roughly
5:08 $89 billion in problem corporate loans.
5:11 The loans that lacked adequate
5:13 provisions or collateral. That exposure
5:15 is almost twice the reported profits. It
5:18 also amounts to roughly 70% of the
5:20 bank's capital above the regulatory
5:23 minimums. Altogether, this shows that
5:25 Russia, its banks are not doing very
5:27 well. In fact, they're doing very, very
5:29 not well. Now, earlier this year, I was
5:32 sort of surprised to read in the press
5:33 that the Russian banks, they reported
5:35 $46 billion in profits during the first
5:38 9 months of 2026. And that is something
5:41 though that left out a very important
5:43 detail. their balance sheets. They hid a
5:46 severe debt problem. In fact, those same
5:49 banks are holding roughly $89 billion in
5:52 troubled corporate loans, specifically
5:54 the loans without enough cash reserves
5:57 or collateral to cover them. That bad
5:59 debt is nearly double the reported
6:02 profits of the banks. It also equals
6:04 about 70% of the capital banks hold
6:07 above the regulatory minimums. So today,
6:09 those banks are needing to hide their
6:11 losses to restructure the loans to
6:14 somehow show that they're not insolvent.
6:17 But household savings data, it also
6:18 shows how ordinary Russians are
6:20 responding to this. Between January and
6:23 September, small bank deposits shrank by
6:25 8%. Even though the total number of
6:27 account holders barely changed. When I
6:30 investigated that further, I found out
6:32 why that really was. There has been a
6:34 surge in deposits from wealthy clients.
6:36 And it hides the fact that ordinary
6:38 working families are draining their
6:40 accounts. Real disposable income growth
6:42 has dropped from 8% to 3% losing nearly
6:45 2/3 of its momentum. Meanwhile, utility
6:48 bills have risen over 13%. Today,
6:51 families simply have less cash in
6:54 Russia. According to Russia and its
6:56 survey it's done its own population, 30%
6:59 of Russians spent more than they earned
7:02 over the past year. Today, 74% of
7:04 Russians say they cut down the amount of
7:07 food that they eat and the food that
7:08 they buy. They don't have enough money.
7:12 It's a pretty good sign of how bad the
7:13 situation really is despite the official
7:16 notices that come out. But look in the
7:18 regions of Russia. Look at Yukia.
7:20 Workers across 17 of 28 state utility
7:23 branches. They reported major wage
7:26 delays. So you have the government of a
7:28 state of Russia. They're not paying its
7:31 people. Not paying people who work for
7:32 the government. The government, it
7:34 always gets paid, but not anymore in
7:36 Russia. Some employees said that they're
7:37 working 12-hour shifts while borrowing
7:40 money from relatives to be able to buy
7:42 food. So when state workers go unpaid,
7:45 that's probably a very good sign of
7:46 their real situation. Now, Yakutia is
7:49 facing a reported regional budget
7:50 deficit of roughly $155 million. And
7:54 according to local lawmakers there,
7:56 that's the result of the local people.
7:59 It has nothing to do with the fact that
8:00 the government is running out of money.
8:02 Now, keep in mind, today the government
8:04 at the local level is spending
8:06 incredible sums of money for people to
8:08 join the military. They're spending up
8:10 to $42,000 as a sign bonus in addition
8:13 to a monthly income of roughly $8,000.
8:17 So, who here is really to blame for the
8:18 inordinate spending? The workers getting
8:20 paid $500 a month or the sign on bonuses
8:23 of $42,000 for somebody who
8:25 statistically will only survive 20 to 35
8:28 minutes once they get to the front. If
8:30 you're just joining us, make sure that
8:32 you please subscribe now and to like
8:33 this video, share with others, and
8:35 consider becoming a channel member.
8:36 Check out the first pin comment, subst
8:38 article, and a link of how YouTube can
8:40 help the Ukrainian soldiers. Thank you.
8:42 So overall, let's look at a different
8:44 sector of Russia and see if this is
8:46 universal or these are outliers. Well,
8:48 look at the builders of Russia. They
8:50 always have contracts to the government.
8:51 The infrastructure of Russia, it's
8:53 massive. Russia, it's got 11 time zones.
8:55 It needs lots of infrastructure. But
8:58 look at the sector that deals with the
9:00 railways. The railways of Russia today
9:01 have a debt of about $52 billion.
9:05 That is an incredible sum of money.
9:07 That's more than they'll ever be able to
9:09 pay off. But let's look at the roads.
9:11 How are the roads doing within Russia?
9:13 Well, there we see things are not
9:15 looking very good. Overdue debt across
9:17 22 major infrastructure firms, it more
9:20 than doubled. Today, it's roughly $110
9:23 million.
9:24 Today, there's in fact an upsurge of
9:27 insolveny, of bankruptcy, and those who
9:30 used to do government work because the
9:32 government today it doesn't pay its
9:34 bills on time. And today, the government
9:36 is not able to raise more capital. Keep
9:38 in mind, we've discussed before,
9:40 including yesterday, what is going on
9:41 right now in the oil industry, why it's
9:43 making it harder and harder for the
9:44 Russian government to keep it all
9:46 together. But when it get you look at
9:48 the deeper side of economics, you
9:50 realize it's about to get much, much
9:52 worse. Consider this. In September, the
9:55 finance ministry issued roughly $17
9:57 billion in new government bonds. Russian
10:00 banks, they bought 77% of that issuance,
10:03 about $13 billion. That exact same
10:07 month, those banks borrowed an extra $21
10:09 billion from the central bank. By the
10:11 end of September, commercial banks owed
10:14 the central bank roughly $104 billion.
10:18 What this is is a loop. And here's how
10:20 it works in practice. Every ruble banks
10:23 spend on government bonds is a ruble
10:25 they cannot lend to the private
10:26 businesses. Banks then hand those
10:29 government bonds over to the central
10:30 bank as collateral for short-term cash.
10:33 In effect, the finance ministry borrows
10:35 from commercial banks, which immediately
10:36 borrow from the central bank to stay
10:38 liquid. The entire system stays afloat
10:41 only if the central bank keeps pumping
10:43 in cash without triggering runaway
10:46 inflation. But today, that's not a very
10:48 good situation because that means that
10:50 central bank is trapped with no good
10:52 policy options. Keeping interest rates
10:55 high crushes businesses and triggers
10:57 more corporate defaults. And just a
10:59 couple hours ago, we heard the central
11:00 bank will keep the interest rates where
11:02 they currently are 14%. It will not move
11:05 them down before at least February 2027.
11:09 But overall, the federal deficit of
11:10 Russia has already reached $63 billion,
11:13 38% higher than the government's
11:15 original deficit target for the entire
11:17 year. And overall, we're watching the
11:19 finance ministry has since raised its
11:21 fullear deficit forecast to about $89
11:24 billion. All this is translating to
11:26 losses on the front which seems the
11:28 soldiers for Russia they've complained
11:30 that they have a lack of basic goods.
11:32 Today the government is not able to
11:34 deliver to them things like equipment
11:37 things like replenishment or food even
11:40 in fact there's been a problem of hunger
11:42 in the Russian military. Listen, when
11:44 you look at this, you think about the
11:45 battlefield, what is likely to happen
11:47 next in Ukraine, a country where Russia
11:49 lost 54,400
11:51 soldiers just in October, averaging
11:54 1,750 a day. Imagine what that's going
11:57 to look like in a few weeks as the Trish
11:59 rate continues to grow and Russia has to
12:01 pay more bonuses of $42,000 for
12:05 everybody who signs up. In no case does
12:07 this work out well for Russia. In all
12:09 cases, this is a catastrophe. Uh but the
12:12 best part about this catastrophe, it's
12:14 one that Russia is walking into
12:15 willingly due to the arrogance of
12:17 Vladimir Putin, his inability to accept
12:19 that Russia is losing. It's about to
12:21 cost Russia big and the Russian economy
12:24 be the first thing that we see fall out.
12:26 Check out this video to see why. As
12:28 always, thank you for supporting
12:29 Ukraine.
Judged by claude-sonnet-5.5-eu on 2026-11-14 23:55 UTC. A flag means “worth a look”; a person decides.