UN confirms opening an account with a Russian bank
27 January 2024 17:35
The United Nations has confirmed the opening of a bank account with a Russian financial institution, as Western sanctions have made it difficult to use conventional payment channels. This was reported by 
with reference to Reuters.
According to reports, this account was established in 2022 and is currently used to accept both mandatory and voluntary contributions to the UN, including membership fees from three Russian banks for the UN climate programme.
The UN representative explained that the opening of the account with the Russian bank was in line with the organisation’s policy of ensuring that all member states are able to contribute and avoid losing their voting rights.
“This step was taken due to problems that have arisen in the usual payment channels due to sanctions,”
– the UN added.
Reuters also notes that this allows the UN to conduct financial transactions with Russian banks that are under sanctions.
Sovcombank, which has been a member of the UN climate programme since 2019 and was sanctioned by the US, UK and EU in 2022, announced that it had opened an account with the UN and that the organisation had started accepting payments in rubles.
According to Sovcombank, it has applied to OFAC for a licence to make payments in dollars to the UN as part of the UNEP FI environmental finance initiative.
To date, the UN has already received $114,000 from three Russian banks participating in the UNEP FI initiative.
It is also known that about ten Russian banks have joined the UNEP FI responsible banking principles, including Gazprombank, Moscow Credit Bank, Centre-Invest and Home Credit & Finance Bank.
In September 2023, news emerged of secret UN negotiations with Russia on the possible lifting of major sanctions in exchange for a grain deal, as reported by Bild, citing a secret letter from the UN Secretary-General to the Russian Foreign Minister dated 28 August.
According to Bild, the UN initiative failed due to the Kremlin’s doubts about the “technical feasibility” of the announced easing, considering the proposals “too good to be true”.
