Russia's Capital Flight Reaches $75bn (£44bn) but Moscow Avoids Technical Recession

Russia saw $12.3bn (£7.2bn) in net capital outflow in the second quarter of the year, bringing total capital flight to around $75bn for the first half of 2014, according to data from the country's central bank.

Official estimates have forecast that net capital flight could reach $100bn by the end of the year.

Foreign investors have quit Russia over concerns about Moscow's military and political ambitions in the region, following its annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in March.

The United States and the European Union imposed a range of sanctions against individuals with close ties to the Kremlin in response.

The US has threatened to impose broader sanctions against entire sectors of the Russian economy if Moscow did not take immediate action to help resolve the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

For its part, the EU has shown some reluctance to push sanctions beyond asset freezes and travel bans.

With uncertainty over Russia's next move in eastern Ukraine, wary investors have turned their back on Moscow in droves.

Meanwhile, Russia avoided falling into a technical recession by the slimmest of margins after estimates showed the economy flatlined in the second quarter.

"We were expecting a possible technical recession in the second quarter," the country's deputy economy minister, Andrei Klepach, said, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

It "appears that we will avoid recession, our preliminary forecast is one of zero growth after adjusting for seasonal variations," he added.

Russian output declined by 0.3% in the first three months of the year.