Russia's VTB still plans to open a branch in Iran but will wait for hostilities to end first, CEO says
ST.PETERSBURG, Russia, June 19 (Reuters) - Russia's second largest lender VTB still plans to open a branch in Iran, but will wait for hostilities between Israel and Tehran to end and is analysing the situation, VTB CEO Andrei Kostin said on Thursday.
VTB, which is under Western sanctions, opened a representative office in Iran in 2023 and has applied for a banking licence.
Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran on Thursday and Iranian missiles hit an Israeli hospital overnight, as the week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an off-ramp.
"We do not know, nobody knows how the situation will develop there. We are analysing the situation," Kostin told reporters on the sidelines of Russia's biggest economic forum in St. Petersburg.
"We applied for a licence, now we will wait, we will not take any action," Kostin said. "We are not in a hurry, let the shooting stop first."
Kostin said that Iran had become a significant trading partner for Russia in recent years, but that doing business there was difficult.
"We saw that there is a substantial business there, but it is not an easy place for business. The currency regulation there is very complex," Kostin said.
A Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) free trade deal with Iran took effect in May. Iran's Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad, who visited Moscow in April, said that the free trade deal would increase bilateral trade to $6 billion.
Iran was the third-largest buyer of Russian wheat in 2024.
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