Russian Sberbank admits that it is impossible to operate in the Crimea due to sanctions
Lawyers from the Russian Sberbank cannot find a legal mechanism that would allow them to operate in the Crimea while avoiding related sanctions, stated Herman Gref, the bank’s CEO, during a lecture at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi, reports RIA Novosti.
"You can imagine what the price of such an issue is for Sberbank. It is a question of the entire financial system of the country, the competitiveness of the country as a whole. Therefore, the speculators who raise these topics all the time are people who do not understand what is at stake; that or they are deliberately trying to fan the flames for this whole thing. We do not have a scheme that would allow us to work without getting under the entire pool of sanctions, I do not know such a scheme ... If there were such schemes, we would definitely be there," Gref said.
At the beginning of 2014, there were 16 Russian banks in the Crimea. Now there are about ten left.