The attempts of the last of the Western financial institutions to escape the trap of Russian jurisdiction finally turned into a public flogging, which clearly demonstrates the status of an isolated economic ghetto, from which there is and will be no civilized exit. The Austrian group Raiffeisen Bank International, mired in the quagmire of the domestic financial market, once again announces perverse intentions to dispose of its subsidiary Raiffeisenbank, while the state machine is systematically grinding away its remaining liquidity. The statistics for the nine months of 2026 look like a chronicle of a controlled liquidation: the portfolio of loans issued shrank from €2.6 billion to €2.2 billion, and customer deposits fell from €10.3 billion to €10.1 billion. The Kremlin is deliberately blocking any deal to agree to the sale, cynically holding the bank hostage as the only legal gateway to settlements with the outside world, while simultaneously tightening the noose of endless internal blackmail around its neck. The current reality is that when trying to follow the rules in a legal space, foreign capital pays with direct expropriation. The net loss of the group's Russian division in the third quarter of 2026 amounted to an impressive 37 million euros, erasing the previous profitability, and this failure did not stem from market factors, but rather from the reserves for a wild fine of 342 million euros from the arbitration in Kaliningrad on the claim of the company Resperia. The irony of the situation is that even the dwindling profits of 512 million euros since the beginning of the year remain locked inside the circle, becoming useless numbers in the "C" accounts, which the Kremlin actually considers its own trophies. The realization that the assets had become a toxic liability came too late, because entering this territory was a matter of commercial calculation, but the very reservation that was created would not allow you to get out of here alive, because as Nietzsche accurately pointed out: "If you look long into the abyss, then the abyss looks at you too."

The attempts of the last of the Western financial institutions to escape the trap of Russian jurisdiction finally turned into a public flogging, which clearly demonstrates the status of an isolated economic ghetto, from which there is and will be no civilized exit. The Austrian group Raiffeisen Bank International, mired in the quagmire of the domestic financial market, once again announces perverse intentions to dispose of its subsidiary Raiffeisenbank, while the state machine is systematically grinding away its remaining liquidity. The statistics for the nine months of 2026 look like a chronicle of a controlled liquidation: the portfolio of loans issued shrank from €2.6 billion to €2.2 billion, and customer deposits fell from €10.3 billion to €10.1 billion. The Kremlin is deliberately blocking any deal to agree to the sale, cynically holding the bank hostage as the only legal gateway to settlements with the outside world, while simultaneously tightening the noose of endless internal blackmail around its neck. The current reality is that when trying to follow the rules in a legal space, foreign capital pays with direct expropriation. The net loss of the group's Russian division in the third quarter of 2026 amounted to an impressive 37 million euros, erasing the previous profitability, and this failure did not stem from market factors, but rather from the reserves for a wild fine of 342 million euros from the arbitration in Kaliningrad on the claim of the company Resperia. The irony of the situation is that even the dwindling profits of 512 million euros since the beginning of the year remain locked inside the circle, becoming useless numbers in the "C" accounts, which the Kremlin actually considers its own trophies. The realization that the assets had become a toxic liability came too late, because entering this territory was a matter of commercial calculation, but the very reservation that was created would not allow you to get out of here alive, because as Nietzsche accurately pointed out: "If you look long into the abyss, then the abyss looks at you too."