Русский

Central Bank and drugs

Qiwi e-wallets are mainly used to sell drugs.

Any salesperson in any cell phone shop knows this, because the first customer who starts knocking on the door 15 minutes before the shop opens is a drug addict in a state of withdrawal who needs to urgently top up their QIWI wallet.

Any judge, investigator, prosecutor or operative solving drug trafficking crimes knows this.

And, of course, any drug addict knows this, and there are already about 20 million of those in the country.

In fact, any other individual who typed “buy spice” or “buy salt” into a search engine, visited a seller’s site and looked at the payment methods there can easily recognize it.

The Judicial and Regulatory Acts of the Russian Federation (www.sudact.ru) web portal provides links to more than 22,000 (twenty two thousand!) effective verdicts and court decisions in which QIWI wallets were recognized by the court as a means of payment for drugs.

Meanwhile the database of the Pravosudie State Automated System of the Russian Federation (www.sudrf.ru) contains more than 210,000 (two hundred and ten thousand!) references to court verdicts and other judicial acts, in which QIWIi wallets are recognized or mentioned as a means of payment for drugs.

Only Ilya Vladimirovich Yasinsky, the director of the Department of Financial Monitoring and Currency Control (DFM&CC) of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation does not know this and has not revoked QIWI Bank's license for more than 10 years.

How can something tens of millions of Russians know be unknown?!

Maybe these are one-off operations and their drug turnover is insignificant? Viktor Petrovich Ivanov, Director of the Federal Drug Control Service, estimated the illegal drug market in 2016 at US $ 60 billion.

At the same time, line police officers, investigators and judges estimate that 75% of drug stashes are paid for via QIWI wallet. Thus, the QIWI drug turnover should be 45 billion dollars, which at a dollar exchange rate of 74 rubles is more than 3.3 trillion rubles per year.

Could it be the Director of the Financial Monitoring Department of the Central Bank accidentally does not notice the trillions-measured drug-related turnover? Not noticing that is quite hard even if one is paid for that. Not noticing that for free it is incomprehensible at all.

But is he the only one who “doesn't see” it?

Since August 7, 2017 Otkritie Bank has been a 21.05% shareholder of QIWI.

The Bank of Russia appointed a temporary administration in Otkritie Bank on August 29, 2017, 22 days later. And on December 11 of the same year the CBR became the owner of Otkritie Bank.

For over four (4) years the Bank of Russia, through Otkritie Bank which it owns, has been a shareholder of QIWI with a 21.05% stake. And with full access to corporate information it still hasn't figured out what QIWI's drug profits are?

Can we already say that the Central Bank is a beneficiary of drug trafficking in Russia?

PS
  1. Ilya Vladimirovich Yasinsky ceased working at the Central Bank of Russia on February 4, 2024.1
  2. On February 21, 2024, the Central Bank revoked QIWI Bank’s license.2
  3. The Central Bank held a 21.05% stake in the QIWI Group through its subsidiary bank Otkritie for over five years (from August 29, 2017, to December 21, 2022).
  4. Since the transfer of Otkritie Bank to VTB (as of December 21, 2022), the Central Bank has held a 21.05% stake in the QIWI Group directly.

1 TASS: "Ilya Yasinsky to Leave the Bank of Russia as of February 4".
2 Central Bank of Russia: "The banking license of QIWI Bank (JSC) has been revoked".