-- Russian President Vladimir Putin is bucking Western efforts to isolate him internationally, meeting with more than 20 world leaders just since May. Russian businesses aren’t so lucky.New US restrictions imposed in June to stem support for the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine have put local banks in countries that trade with Russia at a higher risk of so-called secondary penalties, increasingly delaying or disrupting payments to and from places like China and Turkey.
To be sure, some exporters say they haven’t experienced issues executing payments, and at least one major energy exporter has said its yuan-denominated transaction from China this month went smoothly. Following the clarification, the RBI approved at least 34 applications from Russian banks to open accounts in India, and at least nine special “vostro” accounts were opened to facilitate the trade.
Payment issues were at the top of the agenda when Putin recently met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While Russia has made proposals for developing alternative payment methods, they would take time to get up and running.