The invasion of Ukraine has triggered fresh economic sanctions against Russian interests. When it comes to moving money around the world, Ireland has become a hub of choice for companies and individuals based in Russia.
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.
The Currency has tracked €13 billion domiciled in the IFSC by sanctioned Russian firms and their subsidiaries. This money is now frozen but the Irish government is about to feel the heat over its light-touch financial regulation and willingness to look away.
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.
A bank newly added to the US sanctions list raised the latest of $1.2bn in bonds in Dublin just three months ago. Meanwhile, restrictions on aircraft leasing are rattling the Irish-centred global industry.
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 Tuesday’s sanctions affect them?
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. An investigation by The Currency charts the money trail.
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.
The hijacking of a Ryanair flight and the detention of a young journalist are in character for Alexander Lukashenko, the populist leader of Belarus who has never forgotten what Boris Yeltsin once told him
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.
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