All offices of Sberbank in Ukraine restore operations

KIEV, Mar 29 (PRIME) -- All offices and branches of Russia’s top bank Sberbank in Ukraine restored their operation after Ukrainian nationalists terminated their blockade, a representative of the bank told PRIME on Wednesday.

“All branches are operating,” the bank’s representative said.

Earlier in March, Sberbank started to provide services to holders of passports of self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics, which set start for nationalist riots in Ukraine. The bank had to suspend operations at five offices in Ukraine – in the cities of Dnipro, Zaporozhye, Sumy, Vinnitsa and Kiev – due to violent protests by nationalists on March 24.

But on Monday, Sberbank said it sold 100% in the Ukrainian affiliate to a consortium of Latvia’s Norvik Banka and a Belarusian private company, and expects the deal to be closed until the end of June. Norvik Banka said later that the majority shareholder of the consortium is Said Gutseriyev, a son of tycoon Mikhail Gutseriyev.

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