Kremlin complains ‘friendly countries’ are refusing to do business with Russia
Countries friendly to Russia, such as China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, turned out to be no so loyal to the Russian regime and, contrary to expectations, fully joined the Western sanctions against Russian banks, reports the Russian news agency RBC, citing Vice-President of Rosbank Alexander Rakhmanin.
"Russian companies, especially those involved in foreign economic activity, have a slightly erroneous impression that, roughly speaking, the Chinese banking system and the Chinese corporate sector will line up to help Russians. And in fact, after February 24, what we have run into what we are facing now," Rachmanin said at the conference "The Russian Financial Market in the Face of Global Challenges."
According to him, the situation is complicated with Hong Kong. Turkish banks strictly comply with sanctions, "plus or minus the same story" with the UAE. In the Emirates, for example, where Russian companies massively move their business in an attempt to hide from sanctions, the local regulator "does not allow to fully replace, for example, US dollars with dirhams in trade with Russia," Rachmanin said.
In addition, according to him, not only large banks of the above-mentioned countries, but also a number of post-Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, refuse to work with The Russian banking institutions that have fallen under the sanctions.
More than 20 Russian banks are under the sanctions of the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, and nine of them, including Sberbank, VTB, VEB, Otkritie, Rosselkhozbank and others. They are disconnected from the SWIFT system. Up until recently only Gazprombank has had access to settlements in dollars and euros, since it is used as a settlement bank for payments for Russian gas.
The Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Brian Nelson, is on a working visit to Turkey, Oman and the UAE. He intends to deliver a warning about the consequences which banks and business may face if they try to help Russia to mitigate the sanctions.