Russians rushed to withdraw cash from domestic banks worth nearly 286.4 billion rubles, or 3.4 billion US dollars, during the first two weeks of August, amid concerns that the government may seize citizens' deposits to fund the war in Ukraine. The Washington Post reported, citing data from the Russian central bank, that the figure follows withdrawals of as much as 7.3 billion US dollars in July and more than 4.5 billion US dollars in June. Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser to the Russian central bank, said the large-scale cash withdrawals further underscore the level of fear among the Russian public and reflect that people have lost confidence in Russia's banking or financial system.
