Restrictive examples: what the new US sanctions against Gazprombank mean
Gazprombank, which has managed to avoid sanctions for almost three years, is unlikely to be negatively affected by the US restrictions imposed on November 21, according to experts interviewed by Izvestia. Until April 30, the states' general license is valid, which allows making payments on energy deals - they were the main part of Gazprombank's business in Europe. At the same time, its UnionPay cards may no longer be valid abroad. However, Russian financial players, as well as citizens, have already adapted to Western restrictions. What other organizations and individuals America has introduced measures against and why they are rather symbolic in nature - in the Izvestia article.
What are the risks of US sanctions against Gazprombank?
On November 21, the U.S. put about 100 individuals and entities from Russia on the sanctions lists. This was announced by the U.S. Ministry of Finance. The largest player that fell under the blocking measures is Gazprombank. "Izvestia" sent an inquiry to the financial organization.
Before that Gazprombank was under point sanctions of the United States, which prohibited correspondent operations, as well as transactions with debt and shares. However, it is now included in the SDN-List. Getting there will effectively exclude Gazprombank from the US banking system, ban trade with Americans and freeze its US assets. This does not mean that the credit organization is disconnected from SWIFT - but with a high degree of probability such restrictions will be the next step, believes Alexei Tarapovsky, founder of Anderida Financial Group.
Since the spring of 2022, according to the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, ruble payments for gas with unfriendly countries have been made through Gazprombank. All this time there was a certain "window", a "field for bargaining" - but now they have decided to close it too, said independent expert Andrei Barkhota.
At the same time, the West has protected itself from the consequences - at the end of October, the U.S. authorized energy-related transactions with Russian banks. The general license will be valid until April 30, 2025. Also on November 21, the states allowed financial transactions for Russian diplomatic missions abroad involving Gazprombank directly.
Since restrictions against this player have been feared for several years, the credit organization has prepared for them, said Andrei Barkhota. It minimized balances on correspondent accounts abroad so that as few funds as possible would be frozen. In addition, Russian supplies have generally been reoriented to the East - for settlements with which a completely different, non-Western infrastructure is used.
In addition, the financial organization in recent years is rapidly changing its strategy - for example, stakes on interaction with Russian small and medium-sized businesses, the expert added. In this case, the restrictions will have virtually no impact on revenues. Also, the sanctions will undoubtedly lead to an increase in transaction costs, i.e. Gazprombank will lose on commission income - however, it does not account for the bulk of the credit organization's revenues, he explained.
At the same time , U.S. sanctions are likely to lead to the fact that abroad will cease to work its cards of the Chinese payment system UnionPay, the expert suggested. However, recently there have already been restrictions on them - according to Andrei Barkhota, in Western countries on such "plastic" did not pass transactions over 1 thousand rubles (in recalculation).
Now in the Russian Federation it is possible to issue UnionPay cards working abroad only in several banks. Among them are Gazprombank, "Primsotsbank" and Asia-Pacific Bank. "Plastic" of the Chinese payment system, issued earlier by a number of Russian players, stopped working abroad due to sanctions. This happened, for example, with cards from VBRR, Russian Standard and Post Bank. At the same time, they are still accepted on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Russians have already adapted to such conditions. Those who need to make purchases abroad have mostly taken out "plastic" from foreign banks, said Andrei Barkhota.
Against whom else the U.S. imposed sanctions on November 21
In addition to Gazprombank , banks Iturup, Centrocredit, Kremlevsky, DOM.RF, and BKS Bank fell under the new US sanctions. "Izvestia sent them inquiries.
In DOM.RF the editorial office was informed that for clients the restrictions do not bring any changes - they do not affect the work within Russia. The credit organization remains stable and reliable, and all operations are carried out as usual, its press service stressed.
Sanctions against DOM.RF are purely symbolic in nature, as its business is practically in no way connected with foreign counterparties, believes Andrei Barkhota. Perhaps the measures have affected it, because recently the assets of the credit organization are growing rapidly - due to the increase in the mortgage sector in Russia.
In general, the new measures against domestic banks will not significantly affect the market - financial organizations have already adapted to the reality and learned how to make payments with counterparties under Western restrictions, summed up Alexei Tarapovsky.
In addition, under the new U.S. restrictions fell the first deputy deputies of the Bank of Russia Vladimir Chistyukhin and Dmitry Tulin, head of the Department of the national payment system of the Bank of Russia Alla Bakina, heads of departments Elizaveta Danilova and Kirill Pronin. At the same time, sanctions against the head of the regulator Elvira Nabiullina have been in force since 2022.
Also on November 21, the states warned of "significant risks" of sanctions for foreign entities that join the Russian Federation's Financial Message Transfer System (FMS). This is an analog of SWIFT, which operates within Russia and with individual counterparties abroad. In January 2024, the Central Bank said that 20 countries had already joined the FMS.
What political sign the US has given with the new sanctions
Obviously, the Joe Biden administration decided to slam the door for the last time before handing over powers to the Republicans led by Donald Trump. The recent authorization for Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with long-range ATACMS missiles cannot be explained otherwise. Moreover, the White House has not yet commented on this decision, although it has been reported by almost all Western media and even indirectly confirmed in the State Department. So far, the only official statement on this matter can be considered the words of the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell. On November 18, at a press conference following talks between EU foreign ministers in Brussels, he said that the US administration had lifted restrictions on strikes by US missiles up to 300 kilometers deep into Russian territory. "Why they made this decision now and not earlier, I don't know," Borrell added.
- The sanctions are mainly aimed at the financial sector, fifty banks that have at least something to do with foreign economic activity have fallen under them. Almost all foreign branches of large Russian banks in China, India and South Africa have also fallen under the sanctions. The Biden administration has decided to inflict maximum damage on Russia. Now they have decided that there is nothing left to lose, since this will no longer concern them - let the Trump administration deal with the possible consequences. And even if Trump wanted to strengthen the sanctions, he simply could not, because practically the entire Russian financial sector is now subject to restrictions," Pavel Zakharov, a leading RISI expert, said in a conversation with Izvestia.
In the past, the US Democratic leadership tried to refrain from such measures, fearing possible negative consequences in diplomatic terms, for example, with the EU - payments for gas supplied to Europeans are made through Gazprombank, so the Biden administration did not want to "make a pig's ear" of Europeans, the expert added.
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry has already said that US sanctions will not prevent reliable gas supplies to the country.
At the same time, the Russian side has repeatedly stated that it is coping with the growing sanctions pressure. President Vladimir Putin emphasized that the U.S. restrictions are harmful to the entire global economy. It is worth noting that not all countries supported the sanctions regime, and the Russian Federation continues to conduct constructive and comprehensive economic relations withmost of theplanet. Moreover, unlike the economies of some of Washington's European partners, the Russian economy is growing. According to the IMF forecast, the increase at the end of 2024 will amount to 3.6%.
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