I’m thinking about this too. I’m considering going to Belarus to open an account, but I’m worried — the risk they’ll shut everything down there isn’t small. I’m moving in the fall; my salary will be paid into a ruble UniCredit account in Russia, and I’d like to transfer money from there to here. How have people handled this setup?
Using a Belarusian bank right now is really risky — I’ve heard stories where accounts were closed without warning, right in the middle of transfers. When I was moving I just went to an Italian bank with a statement from my Russian one, told them everything honestly — they were fine with it. Maybe it’s easier to just open a bank account here straight away and not send money through third countries?
Are transfers from UniCredit’s ruble accounts going through at all right now? I thought everything there had been frozen long ago.
oh, UniCredit still seems to work for sending to Italy via SWIFT, but the fees have become ridiculous and the timing is unpredictable. for a friend it took three weeks instead of the promised five days) so technically it’s possible, but I wouldn’t rely on it as your main salary channel, honestly.