Moscow - New economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU on major Russian companies and banks may have negative implications for the Russian economy, says Andrei Kostin, the chief of the second largest Russian bank, VTB.
“The sanctions that have been applied today in fact mean a blow to
major Russian companies that are leaders in their sectors, be it the
energy or the banking sector,” Kostin said in an interview shown on the
Russian news TV channel Rossiya-24 from Sydney, which is hosting a
Business 20 (B20) meeting.
“Quite a significant negative effect will be caused to the global
financial banking system as a whole and our economic cooperation,” he
said.
Kostin said he had discussed the sanctions imposed on Russia with
other B20 participants, and all of them agreed that no geopolitical
conflicts should affect business.
“When one state causes serious damage to the activities of financial
institutions of another G20 country, these are definitely hardly
compatible actions. And, in our view, such instances should be ruled
out, and an arbitration mechanism could be set up within the G20 in the
future to address such issues and make decisions on them,” Kostin said.
The latest sanctions against Gazprombank and VEB affect the interests
of millions of their individual and corporate clients, Kostin said.
“Certainly, the implications for the Russian economy could be negative,”
he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama had announced earlier that the U.S.
imposed new sanctions on a number of major Russian companies and banks,
which, in particular restrict Rosneft, Novatek, VEB, and Gazprombank
from accessing the U.S. capital market.
