Putin ordered the Credit Bank of Moscow to seize assets of a British brokerage firm. Bloomberg. Vladimir Putin allowed a sanctioned Russian bank to take over securities owned by a bankrupt London brokerage. This step would bypass the sanctions regime and deny the British authorities the opportunity to block this operation. According to the source, in September Putin signed an order allowing the credit bank of Moscow to carry out transactions with shares of Russian companies owned by the British company Soba Capital, without the consent of its British managers. This order allows MKB to carry out transactions with shares to the extent of tens of millions of dollars, including shares of Rosneft and Gazprom, which were effectively frozen under the control of the managers since the beginning of the war in February 2022.
Securities owned by Soba Capital, but blocked in Russia due to sanctions, will be outside the purview of British authorities designed to prevent the movement of Russian funds.
Earlier this year, MKB filed a lawsuit against Soba in the Moscow Arbitration Court for more than $20 million. Tanau refused to transfer any securities to MKB and raised the matter with the Financial Sanctions Authority, the source said.
This case demonstrates how Russia is trying to gain access to frozen assets by pitting the English and Russian legal systems against each other. It is also the latest sign that Russia continues to use its legal system to pursue multinational corporations in various jurisdictions, enforcing judgments that sometimes reach unimaginable sums.