Contents tagged with VTB Bank

  • Russia’s VTB bank: we are in Cold War with the West

    Russia's exit from the SWIFT payment system will happen only if European governments decide to take such tough measures against our country, said the Chairman of the Russian VTB Bank management board, Andrei Kostin, in an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt.

    "I don't think that's ever going to happen, unless European governments want to take such tough measures against Russia. But so far, even the United States does not have such plans. They would prefer to cut us off from the …

  • Foreign interest in Russian sovereign debt down by over 80%

    The influx of foreign investors into Russian government securities has sharply declined: by the end of June, their share in the Russian government debt market had effectively ceased to grow, said Elizaveta Danilova, head of the Bank of Russia’s financial stability department.

    According to her, on 29 June, non-residents owned 30.1% of the federal loan bond market, as opposed to 30% at the start of the month.

    The data comes from the National Settlement Depository, and may not take into account …

  • Gerard Depardieu’s Russian accounts frozen

    The regional tax authorities in the Leninsky District of Novosibirsk, Russia, have frozen the bank accounts of French actor Gérard Depardieu, RBC reports, citing data from the Kontur.Focus portal.

    Depardieu, who obtained a Russian passport in 2013 after the French government introduced a 75% tax on income above € 1 million, has been unable to transact using his accounts at VTB, Gazprombank or KS Bank since 20 June.

    Exactly how much Depardieu, a Knight of the French Legion of Honor, winner of …

  • Russian banks blacklisted by China

    Russian officials’ hopes of redirecting the country’s economic policy toward the East and overcoming Western sanctions with China’s help continue to be dashed against a harsh reality, finanz.ru reports.

    Although it has been nearly five years since the US and EU first imposed sanctions on Russia, Moscow has not yet managed to reach a trade and settlement agreement with Beijing.

    Chinese banks are still delaying payments in connection with US sanctions, said Boris Titov, Russia’s Presidential …

  • Russia’s largest independent oil refinery suspends operations

    A tax maneuver which the Russian government made in the oil sector in 2018 is achieving its first significant results.

    The Antipinsky Refinery, the largest refinery in the country that does not belong to one of the vertically integrated resource corporations, has suspended its operations.

    The Russian transport monopoly Transneft stopped supplying the refinery with oil and removed it from its shipment plan in May, the company’s spokesperson Igor Demin told TASS on Thursday.

    That same evening, …

  • Family of flight MH17 victim files a lawsuit in the United States against Russian Sberbank and VTB

    On Thursday, April 4, the relatives of one of the passengers who died on flight MH17 filed a lawsuit in New York City against Sberbank, VTB, and also Western Union and MoneyGram. The family of 18-year-old American Quinn Lucas Schansman accuses them of providing financial services to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). “We realize that we will never get our son back. But we intend to shed light on all those who participated in his murder and bring them to justice,” said the …

  • Billionaire Abramovich dumps Russian assets in preparation for sanctions

    The billionaire Roman Abramovich, who was blacklisted by the US in April last year, had his British visa revoked and was forced to acquire an Israeli passport in the summer, has systematically been selling off his Russian assets.

    On 7 March, Abramovich, the 11th wealthiest person in Russia with $10.8 billion, sold the Russian bank VTB his 20% share in Channel One that he had owned since the early 2000s, after acquiring a package of shares from Boris Berezovsky.

    One week later, on 13 March, …

  • Kremlin takes over sanctioned Russian-Venezuelan bank

    The Russian government has decided to take over VTB Bank’s shares in Evrofinance Mosnarbank, which has come under sanctions for servicing payments by the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela.

    VTB’s share in the bank of 25% plus one share, which is held through VTB’s foreign offices and ITC Consultants, will most likely be transferred to the Federal Agency for State Property Management at no cost, VTB head Andrey Kostin announced on Thursday.

    “The decision has been made, and it has been approved …

  • London court seizes Firtash's mansions as part of Russian VTB Bank lawsuit

    The London court ordered to seize two of the businessman Dmytro Firtash mansions, reports the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

    Interim measures on this and other property, estimated at more than £ 50 million, were imposed at the request of the Russian VTB Bank, to which Firtash has not returned 2.5 billion rubles worth of loans.

    The court also ordered the defendant to disclose all of his assets.

    According to sources, representatives of VTB Bank filed the lawsuit in the High Court of England and …

  • Ukrainian Supreme Court allows seizing Russian banks assets to recover losses in Crimea

    The Supreme Court of Ukraine allowed seizing shares of Russian financial institutions as compensation for the annexation of the Crimea, the press service of the Court reported. 

    In July last year, eighteen legal entities and one individual applied to the Kyiv Court of Appeals with the request to recognize and to grant permission for the implementation of the decision made by the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague. 

    According to the application, debtor banks hold some property in …