Rossiya Bank


The Rossiya Bank is a Russian joint stock bank founded on June 27, 1990. The company's headquarters are in Saint Petersburg.

History

Communist Party ownership and 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt

In 1990, the CPSU committee of the Leningrad Oblast became its largest shareholder, but after the coup attempt in August 1991 the bank's activity was frozen as it was CPSU-related. It was the first commercial bank to hold accounts for the foreign economic operations of both the regional committee of the CPSU and the local management of the KGB.
In December 1991 its activity was resumed, as the shares had been redeemed by some member ventures of the Leningrad Association of Joint Ventures, shares of which were held by Vladimir Yakunin, Yuriy Kovalchuk, Mikhail Markov, Viktor Myachin, Andrei Fursenko, Sergey Fursenko, Yury Nikolayev.

Putin's capital support from Leningrad casinos

Beginning in 1991, Vladimir Putin was St Petersburg's chairman of the supervisory board for casinos and gambling and, in 1993, began issuing gambling licenses in which shares were gained by the city of St Petersburg in the company Neva Chance which owned the first St Petersburg casino AOZT Casino because it had the same address and phone numbers as city hall, but later it became JV Casino Neva and opened on 19 August 1991. In 1992 or 1993 it changed its name to Laguna, then in 1997 to Admiral Club or more simply known as Admiral. According to the Yakuza Kinichi Kamiyasu who supplied slot machines with cash prizes to St Petersburg casinos in the 1990s from his Stockholm, Sweden, company Dyna Computer Service AB which was a subsidiary of the Masimichi Iida owned Osaka firm, Dyna Company Ltd., the criminals Gennady Petrov, Alexander Malyshev, and Sergey Kuzmin operated the casino through a Vladimir Putin issued license in order to establish JV Petrodin in 1991. JV Petrodin, which Kamiyasu owned a 35% stake and Gennady Petrov and Sergey Kuzmin owned a 65% stake through their company BXM, used the money from the casinos to provide capital for Bank Rossiya.

Capital outflows from the Soviet Union and Russia

In March 1992, the Yeltsin government contracted Kroll Associates to track down and find very large sums of money that had been removed from the Soviet Union prior to the August 1991 putsch on the Russian White House. In 1992, First Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Timurovich Gaidar said, "Last year saw large-scale privatization by the nomenklatura, privatization by officials for their own personal benefit." Gaidar called the Communists and KGB officials criminals and that a "a vigorous search" for the money trails from state-owned capital had flowed abroad virtually unchecked before the collapse of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1991. On March 15, 1992, the Russian government froze all capital outflows from Russia. In April 1992, Kroll Associates began their investigations with Joseph Serio heading the Kroll Associates efforts in Moscow. Also, Joseph Rosetti, the vice chairman of Kroll Associates, was in Moscow to assist. The Kroll Associates determined that more than $14 billion in 1991 real dollars had been transferred from Switzerland to New York prior to the August 1991 putsch. Also, the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union along with other government agencies, such as the KGB, had transferred more than $40 billion in 2014 real dollars out of the country. The assests of the Vneshekonombank were frozen during the investigation. However, numerous transactions occurred to bypass the capital flow restrictions often with the British Barclays Bank in Cyprus acting a money laundering center for public officials from Saint Petersburg and Moscow. According to Valery Makharadze, the government's chief inspector, many joint stock companies were formed to provide an illegal means for capital outflows from Russia, such as the Leningrad Association of Joint Ventures and KOLO. Numerous officials became wealthy Russian oligarchs including numerous former KGB officials, prominent Communists such as Oleg Belyakov and other former Communists who headed the party Central Committee department that dealt with the defense industry, as well as Leonid Kravchenko, who was the former head of the state television and radio company. Jules Kroll, the head of the Kroll Associates, uncovered hundreds of illicit transactions with massive capital outflows. This outflow of capital from the Soviet Union and Russia directly contributed to severe economic conditions in Russia during Boris Yeltsin's second term, leading to its collapse, and resulting in the age of Vladimir Putin as the President of Russia.

Organized crime links

From 1998 to 2000 OCG Organized Crime Gang Tambov Gang leaders Gennady Petrov and Sergei Kuzmin each owned 2.2% of bank shares, and they were represented at meetings by Andrei Shumkov, who sat on the Bank's board of directors from 1998 to 2000. In 1998 and 1999, 14.2% of Rossia's stock belonged to the St Petersburg firms Ergen, Forward Ltd and Fuel Investment Company, all associated with Mr Shumkov. Mr Shumkov and Mr Kuzmin owned Ergen, while BKhM and Finance Petroleum Company, both affiliated with Mr Kuzmin and Mr Petrov, were TIK co-owners.

Putin as president of Russia

As of January 1, 2005, its major shareholders were Yuriy Kovalchuk with 37.6%, Nikolai Shamalov with 9.7%, Dmitry Gorelov with 9.7% and Alexei Mordashov's Severstal group with 8.8%.
As of 2006, its major shareholders were Yuriy Kovalchuk, Dmitry Gorelov, Nikolay Shamalov, JSC Transoil CIS, JSC Severstal Group, JSC Accept – owned by grandson of Vladimir Putin's uncle Michael Shelomov, JSC Relax, "Assistance to Business Initiatives" Non-Commercial Enterprise, Russian Federal Property Fund.
On December 28, 2006, Fitch Ratings assigned the bank negative ratings. As a subsidiary of the bank, ABRos Investment Company, had signed a non-transparent deal aiming to buy a considerable share of the Ren TV Media Holding.
During the 2012–13 financial crisis in Cyprus, more than one third of Rossiya Bank's total cash was frozen in Cypriot accounts.
On June 28, 2013, its major shareholders were Yuri Kovalchuk 30%, Dmitri Gorelov and Nikolai Shamalov 10.5% each, Gennady Timchenko 8%, Gazprom about 16%, Alexei Mordashov 6%.

Sanctions

On March 20, 2014, the United States Government Office of Foreign Assets Control added Rossiya Bank to the Specially Designated Nationals List as part of sanctions taken in response to the 2014 Crimean crisis, placing restrictions on US trade with the bank. Visa and Mastercard stopped processing the bank's payment as a result.
In response Vladimir Putin announced that he would open a ruble-only account with Bank Rossiya and would make it the primary bank in the newly annexed Crimea as well as giving the right to service payments on Russia's $36 billion wholesale electricity market – which gave the bank $112 million annually from commission charges alone. Bank Rossiya also announced plans to expand into the Crimean market, becoming the first major Russian bank to do so.

Assets worth – historical data

Management

The head of its board of directors were, in order, Vladimir Kolovay and Andrei Katkov. The current head of the board of directors is Yury Kovalchuk, who has held this position since 2004.
Director General and Head of the Management Committee:
On September 24, 2004, Viktor Myachin resigned from the Director General position and Mikhail Klishin, who had been the First Deputy Director General and held a 0.197% share, was appointed acting Director General.
On December 10, 2004, Mikhail Klishin was appointed Director General, as the Central Bank of the Russian Federation had agreed to this decision.
On April 3, 2006, the board of directors appointed Dmitry Lebedev Director General and Head of the Management Committee. Mikhail Klishin was appointed First Deputy Director General. The Management Committee appointed on that day: Dmitry Lebedev, Oleg Anufriev, Alexander Germanov, Konstantin Gorbachyov, Faniya Kabalina, Mikhail Klishin, Galina Lebedeva, Alexander Markin, Oleg Filatov.
On December 26, 2006, the board of directors of the Bank elected its new Management Committee consisting of Dmitry Lebedev, Alexander Germanov, Konstantin Gorbachyov, Faniya Kabalina, Mikhail Klishin, Alexander Markin and Boris Tikhonenko.

Subsidiaries

As of 2005, the bank is a shareholder of the following companies :
In January 2005 it turned out that ABRos, a subsidiary of the bank, and Accept, one of its shareholders, held a 49.97% share and a 13.5% share of the insurance group SOGAZ Ltd., respectively , after a 49.979% share of the SOGAZ group had been sold by the Russian gas giant Gazprom to an unnamed purchaser for 1.69 billion rubles on July 26, 2004 , and in August 2004 Gazprom had sold 26% more of SOGAZ for 879.3 million rubles.
On November 2005 ABRos Investment Company purchased a 37% share of the Petersburg TV and Radio Company. Also it owns a considerable share of the Media Holding Ren TV. On December 18, 2006 Lyubov Sovershaeva also became the chairman of the board of Directors of the Ren TV Media Holding.