Report: CEO says no reasons for new US sanctions against VTB

MOSCOW, Feb 15 (PRIME) -- There are no reasons for tightening the U.S. sanctions against Russia’s second biggest lender VTB Bank, and rumors about introduction of new sanctions after the publication of the so-called Kremlin Report are groundless, CEO Andrei Kostin told Rossiya 24 television channel on Thursday.

“They are groundless,” he said. “There are no grounds for this, no decisions,” he added.

On January 30, the U.S. listed 114 politicians, including the entire Kremlin administration, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and all Russian ministers, as well as major businessmen and firms for possible sanctions. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Congress said that new sanctions against Russia were to be introduced soon.

VTB Bank has been under sanctions of the E.U. and the U.S. since 2014 amid a worsened situation in Ukraine.

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