The 20th package of EU sanctions put forward by the European Commission late last week is meant to further complicate Russian exports of oil, gas, metals and other commodities. It also calls for punitive measures against 20 Russian banks and several banks in third countries accused of facilitating Russia’s foreign trade.
RFE/RL learned on Monday that Armenia’s Unibank is one of those banks. The European Commission wants to freeze their assets and ban their transactions in the EU. The sanctions proposed by it are expected to be approved by the bloc’s member states later this month.
Armenian companies and individual entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the Western sanctions against Moscow by re-exporting various Western-manufactured goods to Russia. Also, Russia has exported large quantities of gold and diamonds to world markets via Armenia.
As a result, Russian-Armenian trade has skyrocketed since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. This has been the main factor behind a robust growth of the Armenian economy registered in the last few years.
Increased cash flows from Russia have also greatly benefited the Armenian banks. They tripled their combined profits to a record 253 billion drams ($665 million) in 2022. The figure fell slightly in 2023 but rose again in the following years.
Unibank is the country’s 12th largest bank by profit. It reported about 11.4 billion drams ($30 million) in net earnings last year.