| Facing Western sanctions and low oil prices, Russian companies are lining up for subsidies from the government. But the demand for bailouts is quickly outstripping the supply of money, raising the prospect of an economic crisis here if the funds run out. "Quite a large number of companies have access to no other source of funding," said Vladimir Tikhomirov, the chief economist at BCS Financial Group.
But the sovereign wealth fund, the National Wellbeing Fund, might not have enough to cover their needs. The fund had $75 billion in reserves at the beginning of the month. About a quarter of the money is held in illiquid assets, so it can't be parceled out for the bailout program. Some of the money is also allocated for infrastructure. In all, the illiquid assets, the infrastructure works and bailout requests amount to at least $82 billion...............................................Full Article: Source
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