European banks are making heady profits in Russia

Days after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Raiffeisen, an Austrian bank, said it was considering selling its business in Russia. Twenty-seven months later, the lender’s unit in the country is doing rather well. Its staff has grown to nearly 10,000, a 7% rise since 2022. Last year its profit reached €1.8bn ($2bn)—more than any of the bank’s other subsidiaries and a tripling since 2021. Raiffeisen is one of a dozen lenders that Russia deems “systemically” important to its economy. The bank also matters to the Kremlin’s own finances, since it paid the equivalent of half a billion dollars in tax last year.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Rouble-rousers”