**Raiffeisen Bank International’s Russian Assets Manager Still Invests in Sanctioned Entities**
A recent investigation by the BankTrack NGO and the B4Ukraine coalition has found that Raiffeisen Capital, a subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), continues to hold investments in sanctioned Russian companies and government bonds. As of January, the asset manager held around 31.7 billion rubles ($365 million) in shares and bonds in entities sanctioned by the U.S. and EU for their role in supporting Russian aggression in Ukraine.
**EU Sanctions Not Enough**
The investigation highlighted that these assets included roughly 2.7 billion rubles ($31 million) in state bonds issued after March 9, 2022, a cut-off date past which the EU banned trade in any transferable securities issued by the Russian government. Other investments reportedly include about 1.6 billion rubles ($18.5 million) worth of shares in the Russian state-owned bank Sberbank and 2.2 billion rubles ($25.4 million) in the state energy giant Gazprom, both under Western sanctions.
**Criticism from Human Rights Campaigner**
“This is war profiteering with reckless disregard for the Ukrainian people and for European efforts to sanction the Russian war machine,” said Max Hammer, a human rights campaigner at BankTrack. “RBI must address and be made to answer for these violations, and it must provide detailed information on its financial links to the Russian war machine.”
**European Sanctions Legislation**
The authors of the report argue that Raiffeisen Capital’s investment activities may contravene European sanctions legislation. Nezir Sinani, executive director at B4Ukraine, stated, “RBI has previously claimed that its Russian business is subject to rigorous due diligence and sanctions compliance checks, but these due diligence procedures have clearly not been enough to prevent the bank from investing in key sponsors of Russia’s war of aggression.”
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