'ABN Amro risks its image in Russia'

Monday 23 October 2006

ABN Amro runs the risk of damaging its reputation in Russia by becoming too closely identified with the Kremlin, the Financieele Dagblad reports today. The paper quotes Robert Amsterdam, lawyer to jailed oligarch Michaïl Chodorkovski.

‘ABN Amro is doing strategic deals which are only possible if you deal dirctly with the Kremlin,’ Amsterdam claimed in an interview. ‘The transparency the bank claims to be striving for is being damaged.’ The paper says ABN Amro is one of the most important foreign banks in Russia, having arranged $35 bn-worth of corporate loans since 2003. The bank told the paper that it was not afraid that it might damage its reputation. ‘We do not do anything that contravenes our code of conduct,’ a spokesman said.

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