Tue Dec 03 05:50:28 UTC 2024: ## VTB CEO Predicts Continued Sanctions Despite Potential US Effort to Ease Tensions with Russia
**Moscow, December 3, 2024** – Andrei Kostin, CEO of Russia’s VTB Bank, believes that while the next U.S. administration may attempt to de-escalate tensions with Moscow, Western sanctions are unlikely to be lifted anytime soon. In an interview, Kostin, a prominent figure in Russian banking and former diplomat, predicted that President-elect Donald Trump would strive to resolve the Ukraine conflict, nearing its fourth anniversary. However, he cited the strong anti-Russian sentiment within the U.S. establishment as a significant hurdle to sanctions removal, referencing the long-standing Jackson-Vanik amendment as an example.
Kostin, who was personally sanctioned during Trump’s first term, acknowledged a shift in his own perspective on the conflict, stating that Russia felt it had “not much of a choice” in its actions. He further predicted that the approximately $300 billion in Russian assets frozen in the West would not be returned, anticipating their use for Ukrainian reconstruction. Kostin emphatically stated that Russia would cease holding its reserves in U.S. Treasuries.
First Piper 