Western sanctions affected 75pc of Russian banks

RIYADH, June 20 (Arab News): The sanctions imposed by the EU and the US on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine have affected 75 per cent of its banks.

Billions of dollars and euros have been frozen in Britain, Germany and America, VTB Bank CEO Andrey Kostin told Al Arabiya. "The Russian banking sector was among the first to be sanctioned by Western countries, but I can say that the Russian economy has performed better than we expected in the past three months," Kostin said.

He also predicted that Russia's gross domestic product would slow down this year, with expected growth to be between 5 and 6 per cent, while its inflation would be in the range of 15 and 16 per cent.