The banking analyst called the ways of tax evasion by foreign merchants

Foreign citizens who trade in large markets of Russian cities circumvent legal ways to convert rubles into currency, since any ethnic market has its own exchangers. This point of view was shared by banking analyst Artur Trofimov in a conversation with Izvestia.

Exchange taste: Russia increases trade in national currencies with ASEAN countries

Instead of the dollar, Moscow is also actively using the yuan, which is increasing its weight in Southeast Asia.

According to him, this is primarily due to the huge turnover of cash that flows within these trade agglomerations. Naturally, exchangers are also built on the principle of fellowships. The specialist emphasizes that such operations are mainly carried out by immigrants from China, Vietnam and Azerbaijan.

"The presence of an ethnic component is the best guarantee of privacy and security — an outsider will simply never know that an exchange is operating inside the pavilion, with shoes and bags displayed outside. The Central Bank estimates the shadow trade turnover in these centers at more than 600 billion rubles per month, and in the whole country — 2.2–3.1 trillion rubles," the expert explained.

Read about how illegal exchangers work in wholesale and retail markets in the Izvestia article:

Behind the long ruble: how currency "money changers" work in large markets

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.