The head of Russia’s Vneshkombank believes the court ruling on western sanctions against the bank will be positive through a long process, VEB bank head Vladimir Dmitriev said Monday.
In late October, VEB appealed to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over sanctions affecting the bank imposed by a number of countries over Russia’s alleged role in the Ukrainian crisis.
“Our European partners make rapid decisions [on imposing sanctions] but when the subject is appealing these decisions, they hit the brakes. In my opinion, we have a good likelihood [of winning the appeal], but it will be slow, we’re talking two to three years,” Dmitriev said during a meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China.
The bank director added that the goal of VEB’s appeal was for the lifting of sanctions imposed on the bank and not for compensation for lost income because of the sanctions.
In early October, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said the government would support several large Russian banks hit by the sanctions.
In July, VEB, Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank were barred from raising funds on European Union capital markets. Sanctions against Russian state-owned banks were also imposed by Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Japan.