The previous status was “suspended,” Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NASK) announced on its website on Saturday evening. Observers suspected a connection with the recent EU decisions to support Ukraine.
“The status is suspended for the period of bilateral consultations involving representatives of the European Commission,” the agency said. The article with the allegations against the RBI was no longer available. In a largely symbolic move, the RBI was added to Ukraine’s “list of international terrorist sponsors” in the spring. The reasons given were the bank’s activities in Russia and the official recognition of the so-called “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk by the Russian RBI subsidiary. In addition, reference was made to RBI’s lack of steps to divest itself of its Russian business.
In the run-up to the decision on the twelfth EU sanctions package against Russia, EU diplomats reported that the Austrian federal government had lobbied the RBI. This has not been officially confirmed. At the EU summit, Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) denied that there was a connection. The summit decision on the sanctions package was made with Austria’s consent, he said on Friday afternoon. “The sanctions have therefore been accepted. The RBI was definitely not an issue in the Council of Heads of Government yesterday.”
The Chancellor explained Austria’s “review reservation” against the twelfth sanctions package by saying that the last version was only handed over on Thursday. A council spokeswoman said on Friday that Austria had withdrawn this “review reservation” and agreed to the conclusions. This paved the way for a formal decision by the EU ministers.
