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UnionPay is afraid to cooperate with a number of large Russian banks because of the risk of secondary sanctions, RBC learned. Sanctioned banks that issued such cards or planned to do so are forced to abandon projects Large Russian banks that have been under blocking sanctions from Western countries will not be able to issue UnionPay cards, as the payment system is afraid to cooperate with them because of the risk of secondary sanctions. RBC was told about this by five sources in large banks, including those that fell under sanctions. An interlocutor close to Sberbank said that the bank’s...

Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom, oil-producer Lukoil and leading bank Sberbank are all penny stocks based on their trading on the London Stock Exchange, as the local market was shut for a third day. Sberbank SBER, -87.43%, which had assets of over $500 billion at the end of 2021, was trading for 3 cents a share in afternoon action. The European Commission on Wednesday approved the resolution plan for its Croatian and Slovenian arms that will be sold. Its Austrian and Czech operations will be wound down, with depositors compensated up to €100,000. Lukoil LKOD, -96.03%, Gazprom OGZD, -84.21%, and Rosneft...

The revelations of the so-called Panama Papers that are roiling the world’s political and financial elites this week include important facts about Team Clinton. This unprecedented trove of documents purloined from a shady Panama law firm that arranged tax havens, and perhaps money laundering, for the globe’s super-rich includes juicy insights into how Russia’s elite hides its ill-gotten wealth. Almost lost among the many revelations is the fact that Russia’s biggest bank uses The Podesta Group as its lobbyist in Washington, DC. Though hardly a household name, this firm is well known inside the Beltway, not least because its CEO...

As part of just-inaugurated President Obama’s new foreign policy to improve relations between the United States and Russia, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in March 2009. Meeting in her hotel’s Salon Panorama in Geneva, she presented him with a small gift box containing a bright red button symbolizing the Obama administration’s desire to “reset” the relationship between the two governments. Thus began an effort to transfer American technology to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s own “Silicon Valley,” called Skolkovo. In a report released in late July by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) entitled From...

The revelations of the so-called Panama Papers that are roiling the world’s political and financial elites this week include important facts about Team Clinton. This unprecedented trove of documents purloined from a shady Panama law firm that arranged tax havens, and perhaps money laundering, for the globe’s super-rich includes juicy insights into how Russia’s elite hides its ill-gotten wealth. Almost lost among the many revelations is the fact that Russia’s biggest bank uses The Podesta Group as its lobbyist in Washington, D.C. Though hardly a household name, this firm is well known inside the Beltway, not least because its CEO...

“The New York office of Sberbank CIB indeed hired Podesta Group. Engagement of external consultants is part of standard business practices for us,” Sberbank told TASS on Thursday. The Podesta Group charged Sberbank 20,000 dollars per month, plus expenses, from March through Sept. 2016 in their bid to end U.S. sanctions. The efforts were allegedly just part of a larger under-the-radar effort to remove sanctions on both Sberbank and Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB Capital.

The entire “Trump Russian scandal” narrative is complete utter nonsense. Democrats are so desperate to stop Trump, they’re clinging to a Saturday Night Live comedy skit- with the full cooperation of their liberal lackeys in the mainstream media. They’ve just made a YUGE mistake. And it’s all going to blow up in their face. There is a "Russian influence scandal." It just has nothing to do with President Trump. It belongs to Hilary and the Democrats. First, a few Trump aides had conversations with the Russian ambassador, or Russian officials. Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions was a U.S. Senator at...

Democrat super-lobbyist Tony Podesta was paid $170,000 over a six-month period last year to represent Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, seeking to end one of the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against that country, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned. Podesta, founder and chairman of the Podesta Group, is listed as a key lobbyist on behalf of Sberbank, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms. His firm received more than $24 million in fees in 2016, much of it coming from foreign governments, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

09 June, 2011 - 11:03 Russia's Sberbank plans ATM with built in lie-detector - NY Times Russia's Sberbank is planning to roll out ATMs that use voice analysis software to tell whether customers are lying when they apply for credit cards, according to the New York Times The bank wants to introduce machines that let Russians apply for cards without having to talk to staff. To enable this, the ATMs will use a raft of high-tech systems - including passport scans, fingerprint recording and three-dimensional scans for facial recognition - to verify people. However, the most controversial feature is voice...