Russia is seeking lifting of sanctions on state bank to continue "grain agreement", - Reuters
Russia is demanding the easing of sanctions against one of its banks in order to continue the "grain deal".
Four Reuters interlocutors at once say that one of Russia's demands is exemptions from sanctions for Rosselkhozbank, which would allow it to restore relations with correspondent banks, Censor.NET reports with reference to LigaBusinessInform.
This will give the bank, which previously did not play a significant role in the international grain trade, the ability to process payments for Russian grain and other food products. Before the introduction of sanctions, such payments mainly went through international banks and Swiss "subsidiaries" of other Russian banks.
In September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced the need to lift sanctions against Rosselkhozbank because it allegedly handles "the lion's share of all fertilizer and food transactions." Reuters points out that in fact, before the start of the Russian invasion, the bank was mostly involved in lending to Russian farmers.
Dmytro Patrushev, the son of the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Mykola Patrushev, was the chairman of the bank's board in 2010-2018.
The Chairman of the Board of the Union of Grain Exporters of Russia, Eduard Zernin, claims that the United States and the European Union propose to appoint one authorized correspondent bank for Rosselkhozbank to carry out payments for grain and trade financing operations.
