Stories
As the European Union and its allies escalated restrictions on business dealings with Russia, The Currency‘s recent coverage has illustrated how much is at stake in deals conducted through Ireland alone. From banking to aircraft leasing and from bond raising to litigation, Dublin has become a major channel from Moscow to the world.
Leading Irish law firms are exiting their Russian business. One is more exposed than others
Arthur Cox is among the legal firms announcing they are cutting ties with selected Russian clients. As sanctions target interests linked to Vladimir Putin’s government, however, its fingerprints are all over related multi-billion-euro IFSC structures.
What are the €50bn Russian assets held in Ireland and who owns them?
The Central Bank has calculated the Russian exposure of the Irish financial system. While the headline number is huge, it largely represents funds transiting through Dublin from overseas investors – including Russians themselves.
As Avolon seizes a 737 in Istanbul, what chance have the other Irish lessors of getting their aircraft back?
Irish lessors’ exposure to Russia comes to an estimated €2.2 billion. If we’re stuck with sanctions for a long time, the outlook for the aircraft is not good.
Russia’s largest bank forced into emergency landing at Irish aircraft leasing operation
As it pulls out of European banking markets, state-owned Sberbank is also unwinding finance arrangements for dozens of airliners leased to Russian clients out of a business park in Co Kildare.
Podcast: War-time sanctions have finally exposed the extent of Russian money in the IFSC
The Currency has tracked €13 billion domiciled in the IFSC by sanctioned Russian firms and their subsidiaries. On this podcast, Editor Ian Kehoe talks to Chief Economics Writer Stephen Kinsella and Senior Correspondent Thomas Hubert about Ireland’s role as a facilitator of Russian finance.
Sanctioned Russian bankers resign from board of O’Brien-advised firm
Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, two “oligarchs” just added to the EU’s Russian sanctions list, are co-founders and shareholders of the LetterOne international investment vehicle that has Denis O’Brien on its technology advisory board.
Expanding sanctions reveal more billion-dollar Russian assets housed in Dublin
A bank newly added to the US sanctions list raised the latest of $1.2 billion in bonds in Dublin just three months ago. Meanwhile, restrictions on aircraft leasing are rattling the Irish-centred global industry. Read the full story.
Banks, cruise ships and over 100 aircraft: The Irish-based Russian assets under threat from escalating sanctions
Retaliation against Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine eight years ago curbed widespread use of the IFSC by Russian firms, but many have continued to channel billions of euro in assets through Dublin. How will new sanctions affect them?
How Russia’s largest private bank built up a $4.3bn bond pile in Dublin
Unlike Russia’s biggest banks, which are state-owned and cut off from western debt markets, Alfa Bank has been using Ireland to raise more and more funds from investors. Our investigation charts the money trail.
Russia is fighting a military war. The west is fighting an economic one. How does it end?
The international community can curtail Russia with sanctions, essentially, forever. Russia cannot prosecute a war indefinitely. Ireland, meanwhile, must increase defence spending and clamp down on shadow banking in the IFSC. Analysis by Stephen Kinsella.
Podcast: “Ukraine is the principal geopolitical fault line of the post-Cold War world.”
Helen Thompson’s new book Disorder explains why we are living in the times we are, times which became more frightening with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In this interview with Ed Brophy, she discusses Ukraine, energy and Brexit.
How and why a Russian bank registered its €3bn commodities trading desk in Ireland
State-owned VTB Bank has spent the past seven years moving assets around Europe in the face of sanctions and Brexit. An investigation by The Currency reveals that its commodities business has landed in Ireland – at least on paper.
Rosneft’s rambling Irish money trail: How Dublin became a gateway to the world for Russian oil giant
When you start investigating Rosneft’s Irish operations, you discover a complicated network of entities stretching from the British Virgin Islands to Cyprus to Hong Kong. This is how Ireland became a country of choice for the Russian oil giant.
The fate of an epic billion-euro Russian corporate battle hinges on the Irish courts. But who is telling the truth?
The battle involves oligarchs, ex-KGB figures, as well as allegations of threats, blackmail, corruption and secret recordings. And because of an Irish shelf company, the litigation for an ammonia giant has played out in the Four Courts.
The oligarch & me: The inside story of why I went to Moscow, and what I did there
Former minister Conor Lenihan lost his Dail seat in the 2011 election and was under mounting pressure from his bank manager. He ended up moving to Moscow to help a billionaire oligarch build a global science and tech hub. He wrote exclusively about his Moscow adventure in The Currency.
