Banks with Russian capital or Russian founders faced massive information pressure in Ukraine. The prosecutor's office soon joined in, opening a series of criminal cases against the owners and employees of these banks. The accusations were standard: funneling money out of Ukraine and financing separatism, but the goal was clear and predictable: a redistribution of spheres of influence in the banking sector and a "witch hunt" to cover up the situation.
Sberbank of Russia was one of the first to encounter problems, with approximately 300 criminal cases opened against its employees. In the spring, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) noted that there were 11 banks in Ukraine with Russian capital that could theoretically (!) (meaning, there was no proven evidence) be involved in financing separatism and terrorism in eastern Ukraine. The prosecutor's office later expanded this list to 17 financial institutions.
Sberbank's inclusion on this list has led to numerous problems, the most significant of which is the outflow of household deposits: from January to May 2014 alone, depositors withdrew 2,7 billion hryvnias from the Ukrainian subsidiary of Russia's Sberbank. Not to mention that the bank's branches are regularly subject to physical attacks. The most recent attacks took place in Lviv and Kramatorsk, resulting in the bank's branches being ransacked.
Another victim of the witch hunt is Alfa Bank, controlled by Russia's Alfa Group. This financial institution also appears on the list of banks that may be financing separatists. The reason for the vilification of Alfa is that it is the bank's cards that soldiers in the Ukrainian Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) in the east of the country receive their salaries, which allegedly violates the principles of national security. Considering that Russian bank cards are accepted even in Europe, which has imposed sanctions, the accusations appear highly spurious.
However, the prosecutor's office was also asked to investigate a minor corporate dispute over a Kherson aerated concrete plant, in which Alfa Group participates through Energy Product LLC. The plant is allegedly located too close to strategically important facilities—the North Crimean Canal and the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station, as well as the tidal power station, which supplies up to 70% of the electricity to occupied Crimea. Therefore, the fact that it is guarded by the Luhansk security company Typhoon LLC could pose a threat to national security.
But perhaps the biggest problems are facing Mykola Lagun's Delta Bank and the VAB and Financial Initiative banks, linked to Oleh Bakhmatyuk, as these financial institutions are accused of facilitating the family's money transfer out of Ukraine and, as a result, are also on the prosecutor's office's list of 17 banks financing separatism. The case even allegedly involved collusion between the banks' management and former NBU Governor Stepan Kubiv to obtain refinancing, for which the latter allegedly received a 1 billion hryvnia kickback. The media quickly hyped the issue, but the prosecutor's office provided no actual evidence of abuse.
In practice, the regulator provided Delta Bank with refinancing of over UAH 10 billion, while Financial Initiative and VAB Bank received UAH 3,45 billion and UAH 480 million, respectively. This data is from July of this year, meaning refinancing was provided not only under Stepan Kubiv but also under Valeria Gontareva. Meanwhile, PrivatBank, for example, received over UAH 20 billion in refinancing, a fact that raises no questions.
Nevertheless, the pressure on Delta has yielded results: the outflow of deposits from the bank for January-May of this year exceeded 1 billion hryvnia, although at the end of last year, this institution showed the most active growth in deposits – by 95%.
As a result, the displacement of Russian banks from the market led to the Ukrainian banking sector ending the first half of 2014 with net losses of 2,011 billion hryvnias, as evidenced by official statistics from the NBU.
Therefore, there are three questions for the Prosecutor's Truth:
— Do the Prosecutor General's Office and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) include banks in the list of those financing separatism solely based on the presence of Russian capital, or can law enforcement officials provide actual evidence of separatist financing by the financial institutions we listed?
— Who will compensate for the 2 billion hryvnia losses caused by the defamation of Russian banks and the witch hunt?
Who wants to take over the "badly lying" banks, in particular Nikolai Lagun's Delta, when the prosecutor's office is treating him with particular prejudice, and the media is actively spreading fake news about a conspiracy with Stepan Kubiv himself?
Prosecutor's Truth
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