Russia seizes assets of Deutsche Bank and UniCredit

A Russian court has ruled that the assets of Deutsche Bank and UniCredit in Russia must be seized, documents show.

European banks have largely left Russia after Moscow launched its offensive on kyiv in 2022.

A St. Petersburg court ruled in favor of seizing 239 million euros ($260 million) from Deutsche Bank, according to documents dated May 16.

The same day, it ordered the seizure of assets belonging to the Italian company UniCredit, worth around 463 million euros ($504 million).

Both decisions were made in response to a request from RusKhimAlians, which planned to build a major gas processing and liquefaction plant in cooperation with the German company Linde, which withdrew from the project due to the military assault Russian.

RusKhimAlians sued UniCredit and Deutsche Bank, both guarantors of the project.

UniCredit was one of the European banks most exposed to Russia when Moscow launched its 2022 campaign in Ukraine, with a major local subsidiary operating in the country.

It began preliminary discussions for a sale last year, but the discussions did not move forward.

Chief Executive Andrea Orcel said UniCredit wanted to leave Russia, but said giving away an operation worth 3 billion euros was not a good way to respect the spirit of Western sanctions against Moscow to cause of the war.

Nevertheless, UniCredit has gradually reduced its exposure to Russia and managed to increase the ratio of its capital to risk-weighted assets to 16%, from 15% last year.