In the debate over whether to lift U.S. sanctions against Russia, at least one player has a clear stake in the outcome: Russia’s state-run banks. Sberbank and VTB Group—Russia’s two largest financial institutions—have been lobbying Congress to ease sanctions levied on the banks in 2014 as punishment for the country’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. The sanctions prevent the banks—and therefore the Russian government, which is the majority shareholder for both—from raising money on Wall Street. American financial institutions are barred from trading stocks and equity with the banks or providing long-term financing.Last year, Sberbank and VTB collectively spent hundreds …read more
Source: The Atlantic
