LONDON, Aug 18 (Reuters) – The $14 billion bailout of Bank of Moscow was a vastly inflated move aimed at tightening the grip of VTB over Moscow assets, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people close to the former president of the collapsed lender.
The newspaper reported that people close to Andrei Borodin said the bailout by VTB was politically motivated.
The sources said the move was part of a carve-up of Moscow assets following the controversial ousting of Yury Luzhkov as the city’s mayor last year.
“Bank of Moscow never should have got a state bailout because there was no run on the bank and there were no problems with creditors,” said one of the people close to Borodin cited in the article.
“The bailout was not to Bank of Moscow but to the shareholders of the bank, which is clear evidence that all the problems are artificial and in fact the state aid is directed to someone else,” the person added.