ah, russia currently owns owes around $50000000000.00 to lenders in the west. what will happen with all that that rob watts has more details coming up next on dw business stative with soccer. i'm kinda, i think that's hard. and in the end the some me, you are not a lot us to you anymore. we will send you back. are you familiar with this smokey's reliance beef? what's your story. ready ready he wasn't, i wasn't women, especially victims of violence in labs and take part and send us your story. we are

trying always to understand this new culture. so you are not a visitor, not the guests. you want to become a citizen. in phil migrants, your platform for reliable information ah, hitting rushes elites in the pocket, switzerland secretive banking system, has long helped wealthy russians to hide their money. i make more of it, but now the swiss adjoining the international assault on russian finance. and london is also served as an oligarchy. playground with russians earning billions in property that it is the party about to be over that to this day to be a business on robots in berlin. welcome to the program,

is perhaps the toughest sanction the west has levied. against russia, around 70 percent of its banks and financial institutions have been cut off from swift. the system used by banks to send money across borders. it is a move that impact reaches well beyond russia itself. many banks in the u. s. the e u and the u. k. have given loans to russian firms who can now no longer service them. it's unclear exactly how much banks have loaned to russian companies, but the experts of putting this number somewhere in the 10s of billions of yours. then there's of course, the potential for sovereign debt default. russia's central bank can't access its assets abroad on his own course to miss re payments to its creditors. now russia currently owes nearly $50000000000.00 to lenders in the west. payments are due within the next 2 weeks, one for $100000000.00 in interest. another over $2000000000.00 among the countries

levying sanctions on russia is switzerland. it's an unprecedented step for the financial hub that prides itself on staying neutral. but it's still being urged to take further action to reach is one of the world's most expensive places, and that's a no small part you to russian oligarchs, happy to invest their money here. rudolph, elma, used to be a top banker at the venerable sewerage bank jojo spare. today he is a critic of these financial institutions who came to international prominence as a wiki leaks whistleblower in this wifi guilt. angelique, while a lot of money is invested in switzerland because banking secrecy protects the oligarchs. we have a strict secrecy long. i'm halted because it's the government politicians and the judiciary support. this is because it is a huge source of income for the swiss estate for you, then tried to stop russia's brutal war against ukraine has put world wide pressure on switzerland to respond. it's likely one of the reasons why the government here

has back the sanctions saying russian oligarchy should no longer be able to access their assets here. but elmer is skeptical. the some field will help me to quit cylinder was slow to introduce sanctions. and that keep the older ex, plenty of time to shift their fortune somewhere else, concealing the origin of money as a long tradition in switzerland homes pocket the can for this means that the actual owner is disguised via trusts in the cayman islands or companies or whatever in such a way that you don't really know who's behind on the spice, the swiss bankers association rejects the accusation, saying the sanctions would be strictly observed in the state. it's important to understand that these sanctions obliged banks to report russian customers to the your forty's is what i did. the banking secrecy is never absolute. it can be effected by a legal obligation to provide information. and that is also the case with these sanctions because it's concrete to you by the function on small salmon alcohol,

russia, gas from bank and spare bank, seen here in serious are exempt from the sanctions that allows you. countries like germany to still be able to buy russian oil and gas through them. but public criticism is growing. spare bank in theory has covered over its logo and lowered window blinds for fear of protests. the swiss n g o public eye has long criticized the russian banks, and now it says they're playing a critical role in moscow's war. this is not to this, this is, of course, a substantial part of bloody amir putin, this war chest. he calculated it that way from the start. how could you and also anticipated that this money, at least, would continue to flow. we're talking about a $1000000000.00 a day, 80 percent of which comes from swiss commodities trading platforms. said one of the data centers for the swift bank payment system is very close to 0. it's currently under a heavy guard for fear of russian sabotaged but elma doesn't think our complete

russian cut off from swift would be that dramatic for russia. it gets a sheet in american skies. there are various ways of getting around this, like inter company deal. the banks holding bank accounts with other banks and trade shortcuts, as well as barter transactions house because there are many variance. and you have to see that this payment transaction business has become even more lucrative all day due to the sanctions of count authority on rudolph elma, now lives in seclusion near situation. but he hasn't stop criticizing switzerland's, financial institutions and authorities. he's demanding strict laws for better monitoring the financial center, but so far says he see no willingness in the government to take action or love in speaking to your rock call. who's president of the european school of management and technology, s m t. berlin. i asked him how surprising it was that switzerland have joined d. u and sanctioning russia. the fact that switzerland joined the just

representing the overall observation that we have at this point of time, that there's such a strong unified approach across west and countries that no one could escape. and in particular, we've seen in the past, but any bang that 5 weeks have been sanctioned, has been penalized heavily by in particular us authorities. so therefore, it might be a little bit surprising, but in light of your development and also in light of what we've seen as a parent tells you the path is maybe not surprising. is it a big blow to the russian banking system to have the sanctions from switzerland, in particular, given the role that it, it plays with it's much stricter secrecy laws. this is certainly a lot of russian banks, but maybe it's even more blow in the asset management part. so this means, well,

the russians put their money to now they are sanctioned as well. swiss banks are extremely careful in now operating on the level actually with any russian clients. and thus it becomes also more difficult withdraw private money with the father purposes. this is sort of changed. there could last for a long time. what, what, what was the feeling with the sanctions that they going to be in place forever and russian determined you have to find a new way to move that money around and indeed move their exports. i saw the 2 elements for so i would expect the sections to be in place for the, for the future. but that's another aspect. and maybe this aspect might become more important. so in the long run, which is the bolting by feet mechanism that we see now, we've seen that many westland companies given companies that were not restricted to do so by the sanctions. they actually thought it was growing their business from

russia that also western companies don't want to work anymore, which was a russian subsidiaries in europe, in the united states. and this voting by feet as taking really a very massive, a very strong movement over the last 2 weeks. and this is something that might have not seen the as yet, but rather will continue. and then it would be very hard to reverse these decision in particular, we see now if the russian government even wants to nationalize to expropriate the assets. that's western companies have less leslie, russia. yeah, it's made a change for russia that keeps getting worse because it keeps getting more and more isolated from the rest of the world. and indeed, it's looking less and less likely that russia is gonna be able to pay its debt to its foreign creditors. default looks all, almost certain, doesn't it? yes, indeed,

the rating agencies that now made very clear statement that's russian sovereign debts just is a john status. it's also not clear anymore whether even if russia did have the money, whether they would be willing to pay so that they basically voluntary be they are all. this is why the more of the linkage is of the international financial systems to russia will be stopped. and it will even isolate russia more in many different ways. and the financial system is certainly the. busy best way for jack rochel, president of the european school of management and technology in berlin. now, the ukranian president for laudermill is de lensky urged the u. k. to do more to help russia financially when he addressed the british parliament this week. london is seen as a key front in the economic battle with large amounts of russian money flowing through the u. k. capital each year. but could it be about to shed its reputation

as an oligarchy? playground, from their big mass reports. we have an appointment at the ritz, one of the swankiest addresses in london with bill browder. he was once one of russia's top foreign born investors, but quickly became an opponent of flooded me a putin before being expelled from the country. he is now living in london and is one of the kremlin biggest critics. britain has been a soft spot for dirty russian money for last 20 years. they've come here and they, they like the rule of law. they like the property rights. and they like the fact that nobody's going to ask any questions. we're heading to the posh district of burg ravia to eat and square, nicknamed red square, asking prices for a 5 bedroom flat here, which over $20000000.00 euros. as for who the real owners are. no one needs to know anti corruption activists estimate that russians with ties to putin have invested

almost 2000000000 euros in real estate alone. in recent years, there are shelves and shell companies and trusts in an offshore crossen nominees and proxies. all i'm working hard to shield the true ownership of these properties . it's on the capital, the nickname london, crowd. a city, a wash with money from the many rich russians who called it home and not all of them have earned income. honestly, this week, the british parliament is passing a new law to cut the corrupt flow of money from russia to untangle opaque ownership stretches. but this is only a 1st step. experts say, legislation is just not enough. enforcement needs to be happen and it needs to be properly with funding on resource. what happens right now is that the national crime agencies has been on the funded for up a generation. so what we need to see now is for life with mon agencies to be funded,

to act now and use a tool that they are given at the moment. so security personnel on eton square try to prevent us from recording. if i want to plug into her, mom is a democracy and we, despite us having the right to film on the street to sound if your property can, but we can fill my july. first and foremost, i'd like to see 100 oligarchs on the sanctions list. having their properties frozen . secondly, i'd like to see assets identified and frozen after that. and, and thirdly, i'd like to see all of the russian banks, not just a few of them disconnected from swift. his criticism also has a personal motivation, browed, his friend and company lawyer died in the russian prison. he slung, known how dangerous vladimir putin is russian oligarchs, and in fact, any one else who wanted to launch the money have so far been serve as well in london. it's been easy to find bankers, lawyers, estate agents to work with i,

when it comes to property, it's impossible to hide behind sophisticated sales directors open within an offshore trust critics, or wondering whether it's taken a war in europe for the u. k. government to seriously change that peggy mos in london forest. they're not so from us for now until next time. ah, it is the end of the pandemic in sight. we show what he could look like will return to normal. and we visit those who are finding it difficult. he sees his successes at noon in our weekly coven 19 special hovens, 19 and special. next on d, w. you stay at is polinos 1st go to quit of and now i'm sure that it

was as vienna. as soon as i am a searching public window, the money interposed. what? saving with him, but i never did it. will you, books on you to ah, the pandemic has caused a lot of suffering and claimed many lives, but it's also cost a lot of money to maintain the current economic system and mitigate the consequences. our focus on this addition of the coven 19 special. what impact as the pandemic had on world wide poverty, and what are its economic and social costs? what lies ahead, we report from uganda and mexico. but 1st we take a look at.