MOSCOW (Reuters) – Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its navy motion in Ukraine is not going to be lifted anytime quickly, the CEO of Russia’s second largest lender VTB Andrei Kostin informed Reuters in an interview.
“I do not actually imagine that the sanctions will probably be lifted shortly. I do not see how that’s doable. A superb instance is the Jackson-Vanik modification. It was enacted in opposition to the USSR, and it was solely repealed in 2012,” Kostin mentioned.
Kostin was referring to a legislation that dated again to the Chilly Battle years and linkeds commerce relations with the Soviet Union to the rights of non secular minorities to to migrate.
Kostin mentioned he thought that Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, frozen within the West after the beginning of the Ukraine battle, wouldn’t be returned.
“Within the West, they are saying, let’s pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine from the reserves. And they’ll draw up such a invoice that even the reserves is not going to be sufficient,” Kostin predicted.
