Major Russian bank changes hands as billionaire owner sells to partner and divests from country

Billionaire Roman Avdeev has sold off all his Russian assets to enterprises owned by his business partner Sergey Sudarikov, claiming he wants to focus now on his family (namely, his 23 children). 

Avdeev’s portfolio included the Rossiym conglomerate, which incorporates the Moscow Credit Bank, Russia’s seventh-largest bank by assets and biggest private regional bank. Journalists at The Bell have linked Sudarikov’s investment firm Region to the energy giant Rosneft, though the oil company denies such connections.

The U.S. government imposed sanctions on Moscow Credit Bank after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but Avdeev managed to avoid being designated himself.