Piketty Says Russia Robbed of Bigger Reserves by Capital Flight

Count Russian reserves as another casualty of income inequality that Thomas Piketty believes is reshaping the world’s biggest economies.

Russia, which is struggling to rebuild holdings depleted during last year’s currency crisis, has missed out on building a bigger stockpile in the past 15 years by failing to create a more transparent financial system to ease inequality and distribute the spoils of a boom in commodities prices, said Piketty, the author of the bestselling “Capital in the 21st Century.” Jailing “a couple of billionaires from time to time” is no way to address the challenge, the French economist said in an interview in Moscow on Thursday.