Zelensky submits resolution to impose sanctions on all Russian financial institutions

President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted a draft law to parliament on Feb. 22, which is set to approve the National Security and Defense Council's decision to impose sanctions on all Russian financial institutions.

Under the proposed economic sanctions, all financial institutions located or registered in Russia, including banks, insurance companies, payment systems, investment funds, non-bank credit organizations, and others, would be banned from doing business in Ukraine for up to 50 years.

The sanctions consist of 10 points, including the suspension of the movement of assets belonging to Russian financial institutions, a ban on establishing business relations and correspondence, and a prohibition on entering into agreements and making investments in favor of such institutions.

Restricting Russian financial influence over Ukraine has been an ongoing issue.

For example, on Feb. 7, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced the dismantling of a significant underground financing scheme worth over $1.3 million that involved companies linked to Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk, the pro-Kremlin politician who was handed over to Russia during a prisoner exchange in September 2022. 

The scheme involved financing the Russian National Guard and Interior Ministry in occupied Crimea.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) later announced on Feb. 16 that businesses belonging to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch under sanctions, were nationalized following a lawsuit from the Ministry of Justice.

The oligarch attempted to hide his ownership of assets in Ukraine through controlled commercial structures in various regions of the country. The SBU transferred the full profits of the enterprises over to the state under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General's Office.