EBRD Refuses to Invest in Russia

European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) won’t resume its investments in Russia, according to TASS news agency citing Odile Renaurd-Basso, the president of the bank.

As the EBRD president Odile Renaurd-Basso noted, since 2014 the bank’s shareholders’ position on funding projects in Russia hasn’t been changed.

«Their position is very clear. There will be no funding for new projects in Russia. This is a constant position and there are no reasons to think that this position can be changed in the near future,» she said.

Russia has been a member of EBRD since 1992 with a share of 4.1%.

In 2014 right after the European Union and the U.S. imposed their sanction programs against Russia, EBRD also suspended funding of all its project in that country. According to estimates from the Russian Ministry of Finance, the EBRD portfolio in Russia can diminish to zero point in the medium term if the bank does not change its policy towards this country.

EBRD, which was established in 1991, supports funding for various projects in Europe, Central Asia, South and East Mediterranean.
On March 30, Aset Irgaliyev, Kazakhstan’s minister of the national economy and Agris Preimanis, the director for Kazakhstan within the EBRD, signed an expanded agreement on cooperation. 

This new agreement is aimed at facilitating mutual work in the area of sustainable development and economic growth of Kazakhstan. This includes increasing sustainability of Kazakhstan’s economy through private sector support and direct investments, promotion of a green, inclusive economy that takes into account gender aspects and digitalization, and support of further integration of the country to the regional and international economy based on investments into infrastructural, power and industrial projects.