Page 7 - FSUOGM Week 23 2022

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cut off SWIFT. service its debt in US dollars after the expired
As far as SWIFT is concerned, previously the general licence of the US Treasury, it will also be
EU has already disconnected from the financial hit on NSD’s restrictions to use euros. The NSD
messaging system the sanctioned VTB Bank, has already stopped euro operations, according
Russia's second-largest state-controlled bank, to Kommersant daily.
Otkritie (restructured by the central bank and
primed for IPO prior to invasion), restructured Yandex CEO Volozh
state-controlled "military bank" Promsvyaz- The EU has sanctioned Arcady Volozh, the CEO
bank, military-affiliated Novikombank, Bank and the founder of Russia’s internet major Yan-
Rossiya with links to Kremlin, the state devel- dex and most valuable digital company in the
opment bank VEB.RF, and private Sovcombank. country prior to the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia's largest lender Sber has previously Volozh has already announced resigning
been added to the US SDN list and sanctioned from all positions in Yandex and its board. Yan-
by the UK, and the latest EU move is unlikely dex previously saw a cascade of top-level resig-
cause the operational conditions for the bank to nations that followed the sanctioning of Yandex
significantly deteriorate. Deputy CEO Tigran Khudaverdyan.
However, one significant change from the Although Yandex has previously tried hard
latest EU sanctions would be the addition of to maintain its independence from the Krem-
the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT sanc- lin, the EU commented that state-owned banks
tions, as the bank is one of the main issuers of the such as Sberbank and VTB are shareholders and
UnionPay system credit cards in Russia. After investors in Yandex.
Visa and MasterCard have pulled out of Russia, EU also reminds that in 2019 Yandex backed
Chinese UnionPay remains the only option for down to Kremlin pressure and after dodging
Russian banks to issue payment cards accepted a takeover attempt from Sberbank agreed to
internationally both offline and online. a restructuring that gave a “golden share” to a
newly formed Public Interest Foundation built
National Settlement Depository to “defend the Russian Federation interests”.
Another heavy sanction forming a component of “Through the Public Interest Foundation, the
the financial part of the sixth package is the sanc- Government of the Russian Federation is able to
tioning of the National Settlement Depository have a veto over a defined list of issues, such as
(NSD), a subsidiary of the Moscow Exchange the sale of material IP and the sale or transfer of
and Russia’s central securities depository. Russian users’ personal data to foreign compa-
Most notably, the NSD is used by the Finance nies, both of which are deemed to affect Russia’s
Ministry to service foreign debt and has been “national interest”. Yandex is also responsible
central in the ministry's manoeuvring out of sov- for promoting state media and narratives in its
ereign default and the most recently proposed search results, and deranking and removing
bonds-for-rubles scheme. content critical of the Kremlin, such as content
The NSD “plays an essential role in the func- related to Russia's war of aggression against
tioning of Russia’s financial system and its con- Ukraine,” the EU commented.
nection to the international financial system, Last month Yandex had to deny the unofficial
thus directly and indirectly enabling the Rus- reports that its founder and CEO Arcady Volozh
sian government in its activities, policies and was negotiating with Israeli authorities to accept
resources,” the EU commented. a large number of his IT specialists in Israel with
Now that the Finance Ministry is unable to a possible opening of an HQ in Tel Aviv.

Ex-Rosneft president
Eduard Khudainatov.

Week 23 08•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7