Russian justice ordered the seizure of nearly 700 million euros in assets of two major European banks: the Italian UniCredit and the German Deutsche Bank, because they were guarantors of a major factory project linked to the giant Russian gas company Gazprom. Project which could not see the light of day because of Western sanctions against Russia.
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Initially, there was a project for a gas liquefaction plant, which was to see the light of day near Saint Petersburg, supported by the company RusChemAlliance, a company co-founded by Gazprom.
The German Linde should have delivered equipment for the construction of the factory. The banks UniCredit and Deutsche Bank were the financial guarantors of the project. But when the Russia invades Ukraine in February 2022 and the West launches a wave of sanctions against Moscow, the partnership ends. Linde is withdrawing from the project and so are the two European banks, to avoid being accused of violating sanctions.
RusChemAlliance then turned to Russian justice to demand the financial compensation provided for in the contracts initially signed. The St. Petersburg arbitration court therefore finally agreed with him and ordered the seizure of real estate, accounts, and even shares belonging to Unicredit for more than 450 million euros and to Deutsche Bank for 240 million .
Unicredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, announced two years ago that it was seeking to sell its Russian subsidiary. Without success so far.
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