European banks still operating in Russia face “big risks” and could be subject to secondary sanctions “if there is a reason for it,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview with Reuters.
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The United States plans to toughen sanctions against foreign banks that have not left Russia and carry out operations that “promote the military objectives” of Moscow. At the same time, Yellen did not specify which banks were under discussion, adding that sanctions would be imposed only if there were grounds. He also noted that “working in Russia creates very big risks” for European banks.
Journalists directly asked whether the United States wants Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International and Italy’s UniCredit to leave Russia.
“I think their supervisors told them to be very careful about what they did,” he responded.
Recently, the ECB announced clear instructions for Italian banks; They were advised to “leave” Russia, as this brings reputation problems.
Raiffeisen is the largest European lender operating in Russia, followed by UniCredit. It is also known that the US Treasury has recently had the right to exclude banks from the US financial system if they are found to be helping to circumvent primary sanctions against Russia and other organizations in connection with the Russian special operation in Ukraine.
We previously wrote that the G7 announced its desire to continue putting pressure on Russia with sanctions. It should be noted that Yellen’s statements were made on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 financial leaders.
Author:
Nikolai Tikhonov
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
