Russia

Digital bank Qiwi, whose Russian license was revoked by the Russian central bank earlier this month, said on Monday it saw no sign of bankruptcy in its operations and a liquidation process agreed in January should proceed without difficulty, Reuters reported. Nasdaq-listed Qiwi, a Russian analogue to PayPal, had 29 million users at the end of 2022 and 13.8 million active wallets. The Russian central bank, which has taken regulatory action against Qiwi five times in the last year, said Qiwi Bank had engaged in high-risk operations.

Russia failed to overturn a ruling in the Netherlands that ordered Moscow to pay around $50 billion in the bankruptcy case of Yukos Oil Co., once the largest Russian oil and gas company, Bloomberg News reported. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal dismissed Russia’s latest legal challenge in a saga that has dragged on for nearly two decades. The latest verdict is unlikely to result in an immediate payment to the former shareholders of Yukos. Russia has previously said it isn’t bound to pay the largest arbitration payout ever.

The EU adopted a law to set aside windfall profits made on frozen Russian central bank assets, it said on Monday, in a first concrete step towards the bloc's aim of using the money to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, Reuters reported. The EU and the Group of Seven nations (G7) froze some 300 billion euros ($323 billion) of Russian central bank assets following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The EU and G7 have been debating if and how these funds can be used for over a year.

The European Union is unlikely to confiscate Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe, despite G7 plans to discuss the legality of such a move at a meeting in February, senior EU officials said, Reuters reported. The EU, United States, Japan and Canada froze some $300 billion of Russian central bank assets in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Some $200 billion of that is held in Europe, mainly in the Belgian clearing house Euroclear. The discussion comes as U.S. President Joe Biden faces Republican opposition to his request for another $61 billion in aid to Ukraine.

Countries whose sovereign bonds were purchased by Russia would not be considered in default if Western governments decide to confiscate frozen Russian reserves worth $300 billion, credit rating agencies Moody's and S&P Global said, Reuters reported. U.S. and British officials are pushing to seize Moscow's assets immobilised in Belgium and other European countries. They are looking to secure wider Group of Seven (G7) backing for the move at talks next month close to the second anniversary of the launch of Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Moldova’s central bank chief said a collapse in inflation showed that the abrupt turn away from Russian energy had paid off as the republic wedged between Ukraine and Romania seeks accession to the European Union, Bloomberg News reported. Central Bank Governor Anca Dragu said an influx of EU financial aid and fresh energy supplies from Romania were behind last year’s slowdown in inflation to 4.2% from more than 30% in 2022. The recovery after the turmoil brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was far more robust than Moldova’s authorities had initially expected, she said.

China’s state-owned banks are tightening curbs on funding to Russian clients after the US authorized secondary sanctions on overseas financial firms that aid Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. At least two banks ordered a review of their Russian business in recent weeks, focusing on cross-border deals, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a decree clearing the way for Rosbank to purchase stakes in leading Russian companies owned by Societe Generale, Reuters reported. The decree said that Rosbank will be able to buy SocGen's stakes in energy producers such as Rosneft and Gazprom, metals companies including Norilsk Nickel and Severstal, and other leading Russian blue chip firms. Societe Generale declined to comment. The bank had an exposure of 22.4 billion euros to Russia as of end-June 2021, according to the European Banking Authority's (EBA) data.

Russia’s central bank on Friday increased its key interest rate by 1 percentage point, to 16 percent, as it continued to battle what it called “high inflationary pressures,” the New York Times reported. The rate increase was the fifth in a row since the central bank began its current cycle of monetary tightening in July, when the rate was 7.5.

Russians have enjoyed a dramatic increase in living standards over the course of President Vladimir Putin's nearly 24 years at the helm of Russian politics. On Friday, Putin said he would run again for the presidency, Reuters reported. High prices for oil, Russia's main export, boosted Putin's standing as the country emerged from the chaotic 1990s, raising incomes and purchasing power for millions of its citizens.