A letter from the bank's press service, which appeared dated Oct. 25 in the weekly newspaper Ekonomika i Zhizn, says the warning was prompted by extensive advertising in the media inviting Russians to buy real estate abroad, register their companies in offshore tax havens, buy shares in foreign companies and open accounts with foreign banks.
"The aforementioned operations are legal only if enterprises, organizations, institutions or citizens have corresponding permission from the Central Bank," the letter states, adding that such deals will otherwise be considered void and any profits confiscated.
The warning states that Russia's Law on Currency Regulation and Currency Control (Oct. 9, 1992) requires all such capital movements -- even the purchase of timeshares -- to be licensed by the Central Bank.
But Stewart Naunton, a partner with Coopers & Lybrand, expressed doubt as to whether the bank would be able to implement the legislation. "They are being manifestly unsuccessful in enforcing the law," he said. "And the law ceases to be regarded with respect because it's not effective."
The warning comes as more Russians than ever before have large sums of money to save and invest. Financial instability, combined with a punitive tax system and the lack of clear commercial legislation, has encouraged many Russians to shift their money abroad.
"All they're doing is restating the law, which is that what a lot of people are doing is patently illegal," said Alexander Chmelev, an attorney with the law firm Baker & McKenzie. But he said the warning indicates the bank is "preparing to crack down on these violations."
"It's mostly due to the peculiar predicament of Russia where there has been tremendous capital flight through fraudulent transfers."
Viktor Melnikov, head of the Central Bank's department of currency regulation and control, said earlier this month that the bank was hoping to reduce capital flight from an estimated level of around $12 billion last year to $8 billion by the end of 1994, Interfax reported.
According to Melnikov, the Central Bank granted just 60 authorizations in the first nine months of this year for transfers abroad totaling several hundreds of millions of dollars.
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