RBC interlocutors claim that Vietnamese banks are afraid of secondary West sanctions for cooperation with Russia. The new requirements were introduced in the mid -2025 – says the partner of the Law Firm Atlegal Aleksander Pawłowski. Claims that his clients have already reported cases that Transfers were delayed or blocked due to failure to meet these conditions.
Partner Digital & Analogue Partners Jurij Brisow specified that currently Vietnamese banks require a full package of documents – contracts, invoices, transport and customs documents confirming the relationship of transactions with Vietnam. If there are no plans to ship goods to this country, they are looking for “anchor” in the form of a local founder, office or a long -term contract with a Vietnamese partner. According to Brisów, this helps banks justify before the regulatory authority that the operation is associated with the local economy and is not intended to circumvent the sanctions.
He added that for Russian companies that buy or process goods in Vietnam, practically nothing has changed. Transit schemes, however, have become so complicated that currently enterprises must look for solutions in other Asian jurisdictions.
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The newspaper's interlocutors noticed that Vietnamese banks began to tighten the conditions in 2024 under the influence of the US President's decree of December 22, 2023 on sanctions for transactions for the Russian defense sector, as well as the OFAC warnings [Biura Kontroli Aktywów Zagranicznych] of June 12, 2024 regarding secondary sanctions. There is no formal ban on payments not related to Vietnam in the Republic, but banks treated American funds as Signal to be particularly careful.
At the beginning of August, the Banks of the United Arab Emirates also began to massively block the accounts of Russian companies. They informed that they are trying to identify customers whose activities are poorly related to this country or has no relationship with it.
After the start of the war in Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates became an important center of parallel import and financial activity of Russia with abroad. According to UpperCase, 100 new organizations were registered there last year with Russian participation – 2.5 times more than in 2023. Their total number exceeded 4,000, although every seventh (14 %) from previously open companies ceased operations in this country.
