Raiffeisen Bank is facing increasing scrutiny from Ukrainians regarding its operations in Russia. Following recent articles on the topic, citizens have begun to flood the bank with inquiries about its presence in Russia and have raised uncomfortable questions. Customers have reached out through comments, emails, and official channels, yet Raiffeisen’s responses have been almost uniformly generic. The bank has reiterated that the Ukrainian branch operates as a separate legal entity registered under Ukrainian law, while the RBI group has stated intentions to sell or separate its Russian banking operations.
However, this claim has been echoed for years with little action taken. In 2023, Raiffeisen announced plans to divest its Russian business, only to repeat this assertion without any tangible results. The Russian Raiffeisenbank continues to operate, generating substantial profits and contributing taxes to the aggressor state’s budget. Now, entering the fifth year of the war, the bank is still providing Ukrainians with standard excuses, without clarifying how long it intends to maintain its operations in Russia or when it will fulfill its commitments to exit the market.
