7 heads of banks that serve Russia's defense industry are evading EU, US sanctions

The Trap Aggressor analyst group, which monitors sanctions against Russia, reported the story.

Analysts have identified the heads of JSC Gazprombank, JSC AKB Novikombank, JSC AB Russia, JSC Rosselkhozbank, JSC Far Eastern Bank, JSC All-Russian Bank for the Development of Regions and PJSC Bank St. Petersburg.

In particular, the following did not fall under the sanctions of the European Union: Boris Listov (Chairman of the Board of Rosselkhozbank), Dmitry Lebedev (Chairman of the Board of Directors of AB Russia), Andrey Akimov (Chairman of the Board of JSC Gazprombank), Yelena Georgieva (Chairman of the Board of JSC AKB  Novicombank), Alexander Saveliev (Chairman of the Board of PJSC Bank St. Petersburg), Dina Malikova (President of JSC All-Russian Bank for the Development of Regions) and Sergey Marinin (President of JSC Far Eastern Bank).

US sanctions did not affect Boris Listov, Aleksandr Saveliev, Dina Malikova, and Sergey Marinin.

And eight executives were not subject to Ukrainian sanctions, including Listov, Lebedev, Georgieva, Saveliev, Malikova, Marynin, as well as German Gref (Chairman of the Board of PJSC Sberbank of Russia) and Pyotr Fradkov (Chairman of PJSC Promsvyazbank). The last two banks also serve the Russian 'defense'.

As Trap Aggressor analysts explain, Novikombank is a subsidiary of the defense state corporation Rostec and plays one of the key roles in the aggression against Ukraine, and through Gazprombank the Russian Defense Ministry pays salaries and 'combat' payments to Russian servicemen. At the same time, the heads of both these banks are not under European sanctions.

In general, Russian legislation contains a list of 10 banks authorized to serve participants in the state defense order: Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, All-Russian Regional Development Bank, Rosselkhozbank, Novikombank, Bank St. Petersburg, Russia, Far Eastern Bank and Promsvyazbank. These banks are authorized to provide banking support for contracts in the field of Russian state defense procurement, and therefore are strategically important for the Russian government. The banks issue loans to defense enterprises, and the Russian government later compensates them for these funds. Also, such banks are needed to open separate accounts with them and make calculations for state defense order.