Due to Western sanctions, Russia's treasury may be empty until next year if the country does not attract investment from " This was stated by sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska at an investment conference in Siberia on Thursday, Bloomberg reports..

" We will need foreign investors,” he warned.

He added that Russia is suffering from severe pressure due to Western sanctions, so the country and its businesses will have to look for other countries with "

“We thought we were a European country,” said Deripaska, who is the founder of Rusal, the largest aluminum producer outside of China.. “Now, over the next 25 years, we will think more about our Asian past.”.

The billionaire also revealed that the government is looking to “tighten the screws” on big companies after ending last fiscal year with a record deficit that continues into 2023..

According to him, the authorities are already planning to raise additional budget revenues through the proposed changes in the taxation of oil companies and may collect more money from other producers of raw materials through a one-time fee..

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European rating agency Scope has warned that Russia's budget deficit could widen to 3.5% of gross domestic product.. The Russian government predicts a deficit of 2% of GDP. Last year, the official shortfall in funds amounted to 2.3% of GDP.

The agency explains that this was due to declining revenues from oil and gas exports as the West turned its back on Russian energy..

The rating agency also believes that Russia's massive war spending will hurt its economy in the long run, as it comes at the cost of investment in infrastructure, digitalisation, housing and environmental protection..

In February, Ukraine nationalized the factories of the Russian sanctioned oligarch Deripaska.

The confiscation of Deripaska's assets was the first successful case of sanctions against Russian oligarchs in Ukraine. How it was possible to confiscate the assets of the oligarch along with these assets will be later, read in the article by Alexander Lemenov “How Deripaska’s assets were confiscated”.