July 21, 2016, 14:09 / Economy / News

The Ministry of Finance is waiting for a decision from the EBRD on frozen Russian projects no earlier than September

The Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will consider the issue of relations with Russia in September, after the holidays, said Andrey Bokarev, head of the international relations department of the Russian Ministry of Finance. this reports TASS . Earlier this week, the board discussed a letter from the Russian side asking how the decision to freeze new projects in Russia was consistent with the bank's international status. An informed TASS source said that EBRD shareholders found no signs of violation of the bank's charter in freezing investments in Russia.

Bokarev said that the Chairman of the EBRD Board of Governors confirmed that Russia’s appeal had been accepted and would be considered. He called the prospects not obvious. It is impossible to talk about the EBRD completely lifting restrictions on Russian projects, he believes. According to him, due to the suspension of work on Russian projects, the EBRD is actually suffering losses and creating additional risks for itself. Until recently, a third of the EBRD’s portfolio was actually tied to Russia, the official recalled. “Even now, when our share is about 10%, according to the results of last year’s work, the profit from Russian projects still amounted to a third of the EBRD’s total profit for the year,” noted the head of the department.

The replacement of projects in Russia with investments in other countries and regions turned out to be not very equivalent for the EBRD, the Ministry of Finance is confident. “It is obvious that work in the Eastern Mediterranean region (countries of North Africa and the Middle East), which as a result of the Arab Spring was most susceptible to various crisis phenomena, cannot provide a sufficient level of profitability during implementation and creates an increase in risks for the bank,” said Bokarev. And a sharp increase in the portfolio for Ukraine in the current economic situation in this country does not create additional guarantees of profit for the bank.