MOSCOW, April 29 Last year, the largest European banks that continue to operate in Russia paid four times more taxes than before the start of the special military operations, writes the Financial Times.
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“The largest Western banks remaining in Russia paid the Kremlin more than 800 million euros in taxes last year, four times more than pre-war levels,” the publication says.
We are talking about Raiffeisen Bank International, Unicredit, ING, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo and OTP. As follows from their reporting, in 2023 their total profit amounted to more than three billion euros — three times more than in 2021. As a result, they paid about 800 million euros in taxes, compared to 200 million in 2021.
More than half of the payments went to the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank. Having analyzed the vacancies of this bank in Russia, the publication concluded that it has “ambitious plans” to “manifold expand its active client base.”
The publication calls the payment of taxes by European banks an example of how foreign companies remaining in Russia help it maintain financial stability, despite Western sanctions. At the same time, foreign creditors benefited not only from the increased interest rate, but also from sanctions against Russian banks, the FT believes.
“These measures deprived their competitors of access to international payment systems and increased the attractiveness of Western banks for clients in the country,” the article explains.
In Russia, Raiffeisen Bank has had a subsidiary, Raiffeisenbank, since 1996. Now the Austrian bank is considering possible options for the future of its Russian subsidiary, including exit from capital. In January, the head of the group stated that the sale of Raiffeisenbank would be a more likely scenario than its separation into a separate structure.
As the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, noted, in general Russia is interesting for European business: out of 500 large companies have left There are only 100 countries, many of them with an asset repurchase option. However, according to him, it will not be easy for companies that have left Russia to return: their niches are already occupied either by domestic enterprises or by technology partners from other friendly countries. 
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