By Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and John O’Donnell
LONDON/VIENNA (Reuters) – A Russian court has frozen Raiffeisen Bank International’s local arm, killing off any prospect of selling the business for now and deepening the standoff between Moscow and the West.
Austrian bank RBI, active in Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, has increasingly frustrated U.S. and European officials after failing to scale back its business there, despite repeated warnings it should pull back following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Below is a timeline of the row over Raiffeisen’s presence in Russia.
February 2022: Russia invades Ukraine, prompting unprecedented Western sanctions on Moscow. Many Western banks rushed to sever ties or shut down offices in Russia.
2022: Some banks stay put, the biggest of which are RBI and Italy’s UniCredit. Business is booming as Russian companies seek a payments lifeline to the West. Washington, however, is watching.
February 2023: U.S. sanctions enforcement agency OFAC launches an inquiry into RBI. U.S. officials ask Raiffeisen about its business in Russia, the partially occupied Donbas, Ukraine and Syria, including about the transactions and activity of certain clients, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The probe continues.
March 2023: The European Central Bank pressures RBI to quit Russia, sources said.
May 2023: RBI seeks to reassure critics and says it is stepping up attempts to exit Russia, a message it often repeated in the months that follow. The search for a buyer, however, leads nowhere.
July 2023: RBI delays plans to leave Russia by its earlier deadline of September, sources tell Reuters. Both the bank and Austria dig in their heels.
December 2023: To unlock funds stranded in Russia, RBI unveils a complex deal to take a stake in Austrian construction group Strabag linked to sanctioned Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska.
March 2024: Washington pressures RBI to drop the Strabag deal because it believes Deripaska will gain. The news catches investors off guard, sending the stock into a spin. RBI is forced to drop a bond sale.
March-April 2024: ECB again increases pressure on RBI, demanding the bank cut loans to customers in Russia and pare back international payments.
May 2024: In a written ultimatum, Washington threatens to curb RBI’s access to the dollar system, a drastic penalty.
In a letter, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo expresses concern about RBI’s presence in Russia as well as the $1.5 billion Strabag deal, a source told Reuters.
May 2024: RBI drops the contested Strabag deal.
May 2024: RBI again defends its conduct, saying it has reduced activities in Russia and that leaving the country is complicated.
September 2024: RBI reveals that a Russian court has frozen shares in its local arm. This means that the sale that has long been pushed for by regulators, cannot happen – at least for now.
(Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)