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cross-posted from: https://europe.pub/post/55718

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31644815

A fully consolidated Russian affiliate of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) continues to hold and promote investments in numerous sanctioned Russian state and private entities, an investigation by BankTrack and B4Ukraine has revealed.

Financial documents seen by BankTrack and B4Ukraine indicate that Raiffeisen Capital, a Russia-domiciled asset manager wholly owned by RBI’s Russian subsidiary AO Raiffeisenbank, continues to actively trade securities issued by the Russian government, state-owned energy giant Gazprom, and state-owned financial institution Sberbank, among others.

The documents further suggest that Raiffeisen Capital holds several Russian Ministry of Finance-issued bonds which were issued after 9 March 2022 – the cutoff issuance date from which the European Union’s sanctions legislation prohibits dealing with Russian government-issued securities.

[...]

Raiffeisen Capital maintains 10 stock and bond-focused mutual funds, through which it invests clients’ money in curated portfolios of Russian and international securities. Several of its flagship funds include investments in key entities underpinning Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine, according to financial reports available on the asset manager’s website.

Across its ten funds, the asset manager reported a total value of ca. 70.9 billion roubles (720 million USD) in January 2025. Of these assets, some 31.7 billion roubles (322 million USD) were invested in Russian entities that have been subject to US or EU sanctions for their involvement in the war on Ukraine.

Raiffeisen Capital reported about 1.6 billion roubles (16 million USD) of shares in Russian state-owned bank Sberbank, which has been subject to EU sanctions and restrictions since 2022 for its role in “financially supporting and benefitting from the Government of the Russian Federation.” The asset manager's other investments include some 2.2 billion roubles (22 million USD) worth of shares in state-owned gas enterprise Gazprom. Gazprom is a key target of US sanctions, and international observers have noted that the company remains a linchpin of Russia’s wartime economy and plays a crucial role in sustaining the war on Ukraine.

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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19969736

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/32903439