Sanctions|At the center of the dispute are the sanctions imposed by the European Union against Russia.
St. Petersburg the court has confiscated over 700 million euros worth of assets of the Italian Unicredit bank and the German Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, the newspaper says Financial Times (FT).
The FT previously reported that the court seized Unicredit’s assets worth 463 million euros.
The newspaper bases its information on court documents. The seizure is the most drastic action against Western banks since Russia launched a major offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.
FT’s according to Unicredit has the second most business in Russia among European banks. Many European banks have withdrawn from Russia because of the war of aggression and at the urging of the European Central Bank.
Based on the financial statements of Unicredit’s central Russian subsidiary, the confiscated assets correspond to approximately 4.5 percent of the bank’s assets in Russia. The frozen assets comprise the shares of Unicredit’s Russian subsidiaries as well as the shares and funds it owns, FT writes.
The court confiscated Deutsche Bank’s assets worth 238.6 million euros. According to the court, the bank cannot sell its business in Russia, because selling it would require the Russian president Vladimir Putin approval.
On Friday, the court decided to confiscate Commerzbank’s assets as well, but the details of the decision have not been disclosed so far, and the extent of the assets to be confiscated is not known. Commerzbank has not responded to FT’s request for comment.
Court the decision made on Friday is based on a lawsuit by Ruskhimalliance, a subsidiary of the Russian oil and gas company Gazprom.
According to the FT, the dispute began in August 2023, when Ruskhimalliance demanded Unicredit in the St. Petersburg arbitration court to pay the guarantees for the contract made by the German energy engineering company Linde.
Ruskhimalliance operates a gas processing plant and LNG production facilities in Ust-Luga near St. Petersburg. In July 2021, it signed an agreement with Linde for the design, supply and construction of the production facility.
A year later Linde suspended the project due to sanctions imposed by the European Union. Therefore, Ruskhimalliance turned to the banks that issued the guarantee.
They refused to fulfill their obligations because the payment to the Russian company could violate European sanctions, the company said in court, according to the Financial Times.
In addition to Unicredit, the guarantors are Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Bayerische Landesbank and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, against whom Ruskhimalliance has also filed a lawsuit in the St. Petersburg court.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has called a meeting for Monday to discuss the seizure of Unicredit’s assets in Russia, two sources with knowledge of the plans told the Financial Times.
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