12OCT

Putin clears sale of AO UniCredit Bank

2 min read

10:59UTC

A Putin order of 5 October lets Italy's UniCredit sell its whole Russian subsidiary after a spin-off to the parent, but names no buyer.

← Back to US licenses Russian diesel and turns on Kyiv Jump to analysis ↓

ConflictAssessed

Key takeaway

Putin has authorised the full sale of UniCredit's Russian bank, buyer unnamed.

Vladimir Putin signed Order No. 368-rp on 5 October, authorising transactions to acquire 100% of AO UniCredit Bank, the Russian subsidiary of Italy's UniCredit S.p.A., from its parent⁠¹. The order first allows a reorganisation that spins off part of the bank into a company whose shares go to UniCredit S.p.A. It names no buyer and no price.

The permission rests on point 5 of Decree No. 520 of 5 August 2022, a special presidential decision. The order states that no other Russian permits or consents are needed, so the Kremlin's signature is the whole approval. UniCredit is one of the last large Western banks still operating in Russia. Exits across the sanctions line run on government permission at both ends: in July Washington extended, for an eighth month, the window for Lukoil to sell Lukoil International GmbH.

The spin-off lets the parent keep a separated slice of the business while the rest changes hands. Which part stays with UniCredit S.p.A., who buys the bank and at what price will decide how much of its Russian capital the Italian group recovers.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

UniCredit is a large Italian bank. It owns a bank in Russia, AO UniCredit Bank, which it has been trying to sell since Russia's full invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Under Russian rules, a Western company cannot sell a Russian bank without the president's personal permission. On 5 October President Putin gave that permission. The order lets part of the bank pass to the Italian parent first, and then lets someone buy all of the Russian bank's shares. It does not say who the buyer is or how much they will pay.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Since August 2022 Decree No. 520 has made every exit by a Western-owned bank a political decision in Moscow. Sellers wait for a presidential order, and the Kremlin uses the timing and the choice of buyer as leverage.

UniCredit's Russian unit holds capital and profits that sanctions and Russian counter-measures have made hard to move out. A spin-off to the parent before the sale suggests UniCredit S.p.A. is trying to keep part of the business or its value outside the deal.

Western exits run on a two-sided licence system. The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has rolled over permission to negotiate the sale of Lukoil's foreign assets month after month , while Moscow licenses the sale of Western assets inside Russia.

What could happen next?

Consequence
UniCredit S.p.A. can complete its Russian exit once a buyer and price are agreed, ending one of the last large Western bank presences in Russia.
Risk
A buyer under Western sanctions would turn a Western exit into a transfer of banking capacity to a sanctioned Russian group.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: Renault sold its majority stake in Avtovaz to NAMI, a Russian state research institute, for one rouble in May 2022, keeping a six-year option to buy it back. A Western parent left Russia on terms set by Moscow, with a carve-out that kept a door open.

Counter-parallel: Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International stayed in Russia and in May 2024 dropped a deal to extract value through shares in the builder Strabag after warnings from the US Treasury. A bank that tried a creative exit ended up trapped instead.

Immediate effect: the order removes the Russian legal barrier to a sale but names no buyer or price. Western exits since 2022 have closed at deep discounts to book value, so UniCredit S.p.A. is likely to book a loss on the sale.

Structural effect: each exit shrinks the number of Western banks able to process payments with Russia, which pushes trade settlement further into Russian, Chinese and other non-Western banks outside EU supervision.

Consensus view: Presidential Order No. 368-rp rests on point 5 of Decree No. 520 of 5 August 2022, which makes deals in shares of banks owned from "unfriendly" states subject to the president's personal permission. The order states no other Russian consents are needed, so the Kremlin, not a regulator or the market, decides who ends up owning AO UniCredit Bank.

Counter-view: The pressure to sell has come as much from Frankfurt as from Moscow. The European Central Bank has pressed euro-area banks with Russian units to shrink them, which makes the deal look like UniCredit S.p.A. meeting its supervisor's demands rather than a Russian concession timed to the US diesel licence.

Key tension: Who buys a Western-built bank with a corporate client base and payment links into Europe, and whether that buyer is itself under sanctions.

First Reported In

Update #28 · US licenses Russian diesel and turns on Kyiv

President of the Russian Federation· 12 Oct 2026

Read original →

Different Perspectives

Government of Latvia

Latvia abstained on 22 September when the EU renewed its individual sanctions for 36 months at the price of delisting Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, and promised national sanctions of its own. Riga's abstention marks how far a frontline member state will go to keep listed names listed.

India's Ministry of External Affairs

After the House passed the Graham bill on 16 September, India's foreign ministry said it would keep buying energy on market terms and protect its trade. Russia supplied 30.3% of India's crude imports in fiscal 2026, so the tariff decision due around 18 October falls directly on New Delhi.

Kaja Kallas, EU foreign policy chief

Kallas answered the US licence on 10 October by saying Europe would not ease pressure, and EU ministers adopted a 22nd package of nearly 1,600 listings two days later. Brussels is tightening as Washington loosens, though TASS reported the package adds no significant new trade restrictions.

Donald Trump and the US Treasury

The Treasury licensed Russian diesel imports until 7 April 2027 on the day of Trump's call with Putin, and Trump then told reporters Ukraine should find a new leader. Washington is trading sanctions relief for fuel supply while pressing Kyiv to halt the refinery strikes behind the shortage.

Kremlin and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak

After the 9 October call the Kremlin said Russia was ready to supply oil and petroleum products to American and global markets, and Novak brought forward the end of diesel export curbs. Moscow is selling the shortage back as goodwill, with volumes that Decree No. 686 now hides from outside checks.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine

Zelenskyy called GL 135 an investment in prolonging the war and offered to stop striking Russian refineries if Russia stops destroying Ukraine's energy system. Answering Trump's call for a new leader, he set a total 60-day ceasefire as the condition for elections, which puts the next move on Moscow.