A court in Saint Petersburg ruled on May 31 to ease restrictions imposed on Italy's UniCredit bank as part of a lawsuit.
In mid-May the St. Petersburg Arbitration Court ruled that 462.7 million euros ($503 million) of the bank's assets be seized. On May 31, the court said that UniCredit could offer Russian sovereign bond holdings instead of assets to satisfy the seizure order.
UniCredit is one of the largest European banks still operating in Russia. It faced a lawsuit related to a gas project with Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom, which was abandoned due to Western sanctions imposed following the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
"This is considered proportional to the claim...taking into account that the price of bonds undergoes periodic changes depending on the influence of various external market factors," the court said on May 31.
Reuters reported that UniCredit did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
In April, Reuters reported, citing sources, that UniCredit bank was expecting an order from the European Central Bank (ECB) to reduce its business activities in Russia.
Sources told Reuters that UniCredit is expecting to receive a legally binding order from the ECB to reduce its business in Russia, giving the company an opportunity to take action on its own before further enforcement steps are taken, which could potentially include sanctions.
Reuters said neither the ECB nor UniCredit responded to requests for comment.
Despite statements from UniCredit's CEO that the company was working to scale down its Russian operations, the bank's Russian subsidiary reported profits totaling 890 million euros ($950 million) in 2023, compared to 210 million ($224 million) in 2021.
Martin Fornusek
