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Russian Bailiffs Seize $85 Bln in 2016

Denis Abramov / Vedomosti

Russia's Federal Bailiff Service (FBS) was tasked with seizing 9 trillion rubles ($153 billon) in 2016, mostly from indebted Russians.

The figure is up by almost 20 percent compared to 2015, the FBS said in a report Monday.

The agency was able to close some 70.2 million cases, 88 percent of which involved private citizens. The bailiffs were able to recover just more than 5 trillion rubles ($85 billion) overall.

Most cases involved debtors who owned money to Russians to banks and credit agencies, adding up to 2.2 trillion rubles overall ($37 billion). Drivers who had run up debt on unpaid traffic tickets also made up a large chunk of the bailiffs' work, with officials seizing  31.5 million rubles ($535,000) over the past 12 months.

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