Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, who had previously demonstrated his own political myopia and inconsistency, in particular, a few months before the war in Ukraine, demanded that Nord Stream 2 be put into operation as soon as possible, made another scandalous statements. In an interview with the Der Standard newspaper, the head of the Austrian Foreign Ministry began to contradictively justify the work of the Austrian Raiffeisenbank in Russia, and argue that European sanctions against the Russian Federation are not supported and do not understand by most countries in the world..

" We in Europe must be aware that the Russian narrative is successful, for example, in Africa. They say that the West is to blame for the fact that oil, gas and food prices have risen everywhere - because of the sanctions,"

Schallenberg also commented on the criticism leveled at Raiffeisenbank, which continues to work in Russia.. He noted that less than 10% of international companies left the Russian market, but only an Austrian bank is criticized.

" But it all comes down to one Austrian bank, as if it was the only one left there.. It's wrong,"

At the same time, commenting on a journalist’s question about whether Western sanctions are capable of harming Russia if they were supported by only 40 countries, the head of the Austrian Foreign Ministry demonstrated that he is well aware of the difference between the number of subjects and their weight.

" But when it comes to economic production, these countries account for 60 to 70 percent of global value added.. Russia, of course, feels it,"

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Recall that Raiffeisenbank remained essentially the last major bank for Russia's relations with the outside world.. The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC) believes that the office of Raiffeisen Bank International plays an important role in the economy of the terrorist state.

Raiffeisen is deeply integrated into the Russian financial system and is one of the systemically important lending institutions of the Russian central bank, highlighting its importance to the Russian economy struggling with massive Western sanctions..

Earlier it became known that Russian subsidiary banks of foreign financial institutions, in particular Raiffeisen Bank International (Vienna), Citibank (New York), Credit Europe Bank (Amsterdam) and OTP Bank (Budapest), provide credit holidays to Russians fighting in Ukraine.

In February, the US sanctions authority began an audit of Raiffeisen Bank International due to the work of its representative office in the Russian Federation..

Just days after the news that the US sanctions agency began checking the Russian business of a bank lending to the Russian military, Raiffeisen Bank International shares suffered their worst daily drop since the start of the war in Ukraine..