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services - money transfers and conversion into dollars - to companies that were not directly sanctioned.
Oleg Tinkov, the former billionaire best known for founding Tinkoff Bank, one of the biggest in Russia, was forced to sell his business to billionaire Vladimir Potanin for just 3% of its market value earlier this year. In an interview published last week with The Bell’s founder, Elizaveta Osetinksaya, he attacked his former colleagues, said he would sue Tinkoff Bank for continuing to use his name and condemned the Putin regime.
In the interview, Tinkov also said that he is ashamed to be Russian and no longer wants anything in common with Russia. “Some day, Russia will repent, offer reparations to Ukraine, sprinkle ashes on her head and at last carry out something that, unfortunately, did not happen in 1991 – it will recognize Communists and Putinists as criminals. Just like the Germans did.” Earlier this month, Tinkov said that he had renounced his Russian citizenship. If this is true, he is now a Cypriot citizen.
The net profit of TCS Group, which comprises Russia’s Tinkoff Bank and Tinkoff Insurance, slid by 78.3% on the year to 10.1bn rubles in January–September, the company said in a statement on November 23. In July–September, the net profit fell by 64.3% to 5.9mn rubles. Interest income rose by 19% to 50.9bn rubles. The loan portfolio of the group decreased by 4% to 584bn rubles.
The central bank has ceded 100% in Moscow Industrial Bank to the Federal State Property Management Agency for 1 ruble, the authority said in a statement on November 10. The shares will be invested in the charter capital of Promsvyazbank as a contribution of the state. Promsvyazbank is to take over Moscow Industrial Bank no later than in May 2023. The bank was bailed out by the central bank in January 2019. In May 2022, the authority injected 34.9bn rubles in the capital of the bank.
A group of PwC partners has launched a breakaway firm in Cyprus, Kiteserve, to take on work from Russia-linked clients that the Big Four accountants will no longer touch. PwC has operated a “sanctioned anywhere, sanctioned everywhere” policy globally since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kiteserve managing partner Theo Parperis said his new firm observed EU, US and UK sanctions. About 50 per cent of Kiteserve’s clients had links to Russia but predicted this would reduce over time. The work related mostly to assets in the west rather than in Russia. Unlike PwC Cyprus, Kiteserve does not voluntarily observe sanctions imposed by countries such as Australia and Canada. It provides services to entities hit with EU sanctions when permitted under a derogation, though this accounts for only a “small percentage” of Kiteserve’s clientele. The “majority” were not the subject of sanctions by the EU, US or UK.
The Uzbek commercial banks see risks in servicing Russian Mir pay cards and cannot start their acceptance, Central Bank Chairman Mamarizo Nurmurodov said on November 3. "We are not talking about the restart (of Mir
90 RUSSIA Country Report December 2022 www.intellinews.com