It should not be surprising that an old-line bank like the Bank of New York got embroiled in this scandal. It is well known that tens of billions of dollars have been illicitly leaving Russia every year since the beginning of this decade, a flow that could not happen without the involvement, however innocent, of respectable Western financial institutions. Like a battered spouse who sees no alternative but to return to her abuser, Russia comes back to the IMF for more credits. But the hundreds of billions that have fled the country in the 1990s have canceled out this 'aid,' as well as the meager foreign direct investment, many times over. The economy has shrunk by more than half.
Russian men can now expect to die in their fifties.
The chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, has noted that the number of Russians living in poverty climbed from 2 million to 60 million in just a few years.