EBRD Russian financing freeze denies development goals — ministry

Freeze of the financing of new projects in Russia by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) runs counter to the goals of the international development institutions, Russian Minister of Economic Development and Russian governor in the EBRD Aleksey Ulyukaev said on Saturday.
Such actions based on the European Council sanctions recommendations are unconstructive and “can seriously damage the bank, its customers and long-term interests of all shareholders”, Ulyukaev is quoted in the Ministry’s release as saying at the meeting with EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti.
“A majority of the Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), including all EU member states and several non-EU shareholders, have given clear guidance to the EBRD management that, for the time being, they will be unable to approve new investment projects in Russia,” the EBRD said on July 23.

On July 17, the European Council instructed the European Investment Bank (EIB) to suspend new financial transactions in favour of Russia. The EU summit also decided to revise the support programs financed from the union’s budget.
Last year the EBRD and EIB allocated about $2.5 billion and $1.4 billion for Russian projects respectively. The EU total support programmes for Russia amount to 447 million euros up to 2020.
Over the first six months 2014, Russia attracted 19% of the EBRD investments. In the same period, the bank invested a record amount of 3.6 billion euros in all 35 countries of operations.