A great part of capital of the largest Russian private banks, except those in the United States of America is concentrated in Montenegro. This surprising fact has been found these days by Moscow journalists who looked for the answer on the question where Russian financial capital left and where it "resided". Croatian daily newspaper "Vjesnik" officially confirmed that on April 1, Russian banks had 3.8 billion USD in American banks and in off-shore Montenegrin banks 1.8 billion USD. Germany is on the third place and there Russian banks have 1.1 billion USD at the moment, then Austria and Great Britain, while Switzerland is only at the sixth place in that rank list. The fact that Montenegro took second place in the world among states where Russian banks kept their capital became a first-class surprise for politicians from Kremlin and their economic advisors, and for two reasons. The first one is because Montenegro has not officially been declared as an off-shore zone. The other reason is that 1.8 billion USD is an amount disproportionate to trade and goods exchange that Russia and Montenegro, that is, FR Yugoslavia have. In comparison with former Yugoslav republics, and present independent states, FRY is on the third place with annual goods exchange worth about 300 million USD, behind Croatia with 450 and Slovenia with 330 million USD. Among 30 greatest Russian banks, 15 have business relations with Yugoslav, or, according to official records, 18% of their financial operations with foreign banks is done in Montenegro. A representative of Moscow MDM bank, which has 205 million USD on accounts in FRY at the moment, explained this unusual affection of Russian banks and bankers towards Montenegro. Tax on profit of Montenegrin off-shore banks is only 2.5% and Montenegro, that is, FRY, signed with Russia the agreement on avoidance of double taxing. Besides, financial operations of off-shore banks are not submitted to control and financial check in the Central Bank of Russia is not obligatory if the income of the bank does not exceed 1.5 million USD, or if the profit is not higher than 100,000 USD. Director of Moscow agency "Business and rating", Mihail Matovnikov, said that there are only two explanations for this unexpected flow of Russian capital to Montenegro. The first one is political, since Russian state authorities is interested in most various presence of its state in the Balkans, and particularly in FR Yugoslavia. Namely, on the list of off-shore zones, for which the Central Bank of Russia applies the most strict measures of surveillance, there are 47 states and 23 territories, but Montenegro is not listed there. If Kremlin state authorities requested that, the Central Bank of Russia would put Montenegro in that list. However, Mihail Matovnikov did not eliminate the possibility that Montenegro had a strong lobby in business-political circles of Russia. It is quite enough to remind that during his visit to Russia two and a half years ago, Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic made a reception in luxurious hotel "Baleuga - Kempinsky" in Moscow which costed his Republic minimum 150,000 USD. After that reception the Russian banking capital went flowing to Montenegro and that flow of money culminated last year. Truly, for Russian bankers, Montenegrin off-shore oasis is in danger at the moment. Since January 1 this year, legislative in Montenegro and FRY has been made stricter. Minimal foundation capital for new banks is not 10,000 USD any more, but 5 million DEM. According to the new laws, business activities by European rules are requested from shareholders and management, and there is no possibility of using nominal directors any more. However, since these banks were founded on previous rules, they would be able to continue their business for the next 15 years. Nevertheless, Mihail Matovnikov did not eliminate the possibility that Montenegro, that is, FR Yugoslavia would shorten this period of time under pressure from the West.