The freezing of hundreds of billions of dollars in creditors’ assets was part of the dispute over the gas project halted by sanctions.
A Russian court has ordered the seizure of assets, accounts, property and shares of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank in the country as part of a lawsuit involving the German banks, court documents showed.
Banks are among the creditors guarantors of a contract to build a gas processing plant in Russia with German company Linde. The project was closed due to Western sanctions.
European banks largely abandoned Russia after Moscow launched its offensive against Ukraine in 2022.
A St. Petersburg court ruled in favor of seizing 239 million euros ($260 million) from Deutsche Bank, documents dated May 16 showed.
Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt said it had already provisioned around 260 million euros ($283 million) for the case.
“We will need to see how this claim is implemented by Russian courts and assess the immediate operational impact in Russia,” the bank added in a statement.
The court also confiscated the assets of Commerzbank, another German financial institution, worth 93.7 million euros ($101.85 million), as well as securities and the bank’s building in the center of Moscow.
The bank has not yet commented on the case.
In a parallel proceeding on Friday, the Russian court also ordered the seizure of UniCredit’s assets, accounts and properties, as well as shares in two subsidiaries. The decision covered 462.7 million euros ($503 million) in assets.
UniCredit said it “has been informed” of the decision and is “reviewing” the situation in detail. The bank was one of the most exposed European banks when Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, with a large local subsidiary operating in Russia.
It began preliminary discussions about a sale last year, but negotiations did not progress. Chief Executive Andrea Orcel said UniCredit wanted to leave Russia, but added that giving away an operation worth three billion euros ($3.3 billion) was not a good way to respect the spirit of Western sanctions on Moscow due to the conflict.
Russia has faced heavy Western sanctions, including on its banking sector, since the start of the war in Ukraine. Dozens of North American and European companies also stopped doing business in the country.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
