The activities of Austrian state-owned enterprises, which remain in Russia despite economic sanctions, are controversial – some consider it “reckless”, others – “reasonable”. The fact is that they have a lot of profits thanks to this – describes the portal of the ZDF station on Sunday. Even 50 percent. international payment transactions from Russia are currently processed through an Austrian bank.
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Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), a subsidiary of the Austrian bank Raiffeisen, is one of the references the greatest successes of banks on the Russian financial market. Currently, it has about 100 branches and over 3 million customers in Russia. “Nothing has changed since Russia invaded Ukraine. On the contrary, 2022 was a record year for the bank with a profit of EUR 3.6 billion. Since the beginning of the war, the RBI has been “considering” withdrawing from Russia, but still does nothing,” ZDF stresses.
Importantly, RBI remains one of the few banks in Russia that can still carry out Swift transactions. It is profitable, because from 50 percent. (according to Financial Times estimates) up to 25 percent (according to RBI) of international payment transactions from Russia are currently processed through an Austrian bank.
According to the Austrian newspaper “Der Standard”, there are indications that oligarchs from Putin’s circle do business through the RBI – Boris and Arkady Rotenberg (both are on US and EU sanctions lists). Even the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) recently wanted to work out how sanctions against Russia could be reconciled with RBI’s record profits. ZDF adds.
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Austrian neutrality?
As ZDF reminds, in Austria, the war in Ukraine had a smaller impact on the economy than in many European countries – “the assets of Russian oligarchs were reluctantly confiscated and the government was quite lenient when it came to issuing visas to Russians in power” – reminds ZDF.
Austria explains this by its policy of neutrality, which has been operating for decades. “Vienna sees itself as a bridge-builder, as a place of negotiation (…) In Austrian understanding, this means maintaining business relations, even after the war,” notes ZDF. This approach applies in particular to the energy concern OMV – Over the past year, Austria has practically not reduced its purchases of Russian gas, and the current contract for the supply of gas is valid until 2040.
In an interview with “Der Standard”, the head of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Schallenberg, stated that “Russia will not disappear, but will remain the biggest neighbor of the EU.” Asked about RBI’s operations in Rosi, he said the company “has acted wisely so far by waiting … while testing all scenarios.”
“As long as rubles are flowing into the coffers, this ‘test’ will probably continue” – assesses ZDF and notes that even the imposition of sanctions by the Ukrainian authorities on the RBI bank did not worry him, because “Ukraine is a smaller market” than Russia.
source:
pap
#austria
#Russia
#sanctions
#bank
#war
