Raiffeisenbank has long wanted to withdraw from Russia, but instead it continues to make huge profits there.
Article from ZEIT Austria
Published in
ZEIT Austria No. 50/2024
Article summary
Russian President Putin lures indebted Russians into war with debt freedom in order to recruit cannon fodder. Raiffeisenbank International (RBI) in Russia is facing moral and financial dilemmas as it wants to withdraw from the country but is facing difficulties in doing so. Despite profits of 409 million euros in the last quarter, the bank has to scale down its Russian business because profits are not allowed to flow to Austria. A planned sale of the Russian subsidiary bank is being delayed by sanctions and court rulings, while hopes of an exit rest on Donald Trump.
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If Wladimir Putin If he needs cannon fodder for the front, any means is acceptable to him. Recently the Russian President signed a law according to which Russians who are in financial difficulties should be lured into war. Anyone who signs up as a recruit for a year will have their debts forgiven. From the bank, at the behest of the Kremlin.
Debt-free into the trenches: a new cynical cruelty in this war so rich in cynical cruelties. The law also draws attention to the Russian Raiffeisenbank, a 100 percent subsidiary of Raiffeisenbank International (RBI), which is still in… Russia operates and serves 3.3 million customers there. The RBI does not want to comment on the debt relief for new recruits, which will apply from December 1st. But in the past she had supported similar requirements – such as temporarily suspending loan installments for soldiers. As a Russian bank, it was “legally obliged” to do this, it was said at the time.