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India's debt-laden <keyword id="6425677" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Essar-Group">Essar Group</keyword> confirmed on Saturday that it has agreed to sell a 98 % interest in its <keyword id="6377011" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Essar-Oil">Essar Oil</keyword> unit to a consortium led by <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword>'s <keyword id="174417" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rosneft">Rosneft</keyword>, giving the energy giant a gateway into the world's fastest growing fuel market. 
 The deal will see Rosneft, along with its partners <keyword id="6466292" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Trafigura">Trafigura</keyword> and <keyword id="3750775" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="united-capital-partners">United Capital Partners</keyword> (UCP), pay $10.9 billion for <keyword id="6368035" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="essar">Essar</keyword>'s refining and retail assets. Separately, $2 billion will be paid toward the acquisition of the <keyword id="6400401" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vadinar">Vadinar</keyword> port in the western state of <keyword id="6354766" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gujarat">Gujarat</keyword>, along with certain import and export facilities. 
 Sources familiar with the matter had told <keyword id="76338" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reuters">Reuters</keyword> on Friday that a deal was imminent. It will give Rosneft a 49 % stake in Essar Oil, with 49 percent being split equally between Trafigura and UCP. The deal was carefully structured to avoid falling foul of western sanctions against Russia over its role in the <keyword id="6355101" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ukraine">Ukraine</keyword> crisis. 
 "Rosneft will not get a controlling stake, partly because of these reasons (sanctions)", <keyword id="2636824" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Andrey-Kostin">Andrey Kostin</keyword>, head of Russian lender <keyword id="367587" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="VTB">VTB</keyword> which advised Essar on the deal, told Reuters. 
 The deal helps Russia to deepen economic ties with India that stretch back to the Soviet era. The purchase is the biggest foreign acquisition ever in India and Russia's largest outbound deal, according to <keyword id="6407190" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Thomson-Reuters">Thomson Reuters</keyword> data. It was finalised after Indian Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> and Russian President <keyword id="43440" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vladimir-Putin">Vladimir Putin</keyword> met at a summit in the western state of Goa on Saturday. 
The all-cash deal will give Rosneft and its partners control of Essar's 20 million tonne refinery in Gujarat, and its retail fuel outlets in India, where growth for refined petroleum goods in the next five years is expected to be in the 5 percent to 7 percent range. 
 "Rosneft is entering one of the most promising and fast-growing world markets," said its Chief Executive <keyword id="288201" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Igor-Sechin">Igor Sechin</keyword> in a statement, adding that the deal gives it "unique opportunities for synergies" with its existing assets. 
 
Separately, Rosneft said it would use Venezuelan crude to supply the Vadinar refinery. 
 
The closing of the transaction is conditional on receiving requisite regulatory approvals that are expected before the end of the first quarter of 2017. 
 The deal also reduces some of the pressure on Essar, which is controlled by the billionaire <keyword id="172583" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ruia">Ruia</keyword> brothers. The group has a presence in oil and gas, steel, ports and power, and has been under pressure from its lenders to reduce its debt burden. 
 
In parallel with the deal, Russian lender VTB said on Saturday it would lend Essar about $3.9 billion toward debt reconstruction. 
 <keyword id="45875" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chanda-Kochhar">Chanda Kochhar</keyword>, chief executive of <keyword id="201394" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICICI-Bank-Ltd">ICICI Bank Ltd</keyword> - one of Essar's top lenders - welcomed the deal, noting that it has been working closely with Essar to deleverage its stressed balance sheet.

India's biggest deal worth Rs 72,800 crores: Essar oil sells
to Russia's Rosneft

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Russia's trade with China will hit $200 billion this year, Russia's prime minister said.</li><li>Meeting that target would take trade between the two countries to a new record.</li></ul>Russia's trade with China is going to boom to a new record this year, according to the Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.At a Shanghai forum on Tuesday, Mishustin said he believed Russia and China would be able to raise their total trade volume to $200 billion this year, per a report from the <a href="https://world.huanqiu.com/article/4D17TcVtpBh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Times</a>, a Chinese state-run news outlet.Meeting that target would bring total trade between Russia and China to its highest level ever, surpassing the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/china-russia-trade-190-billion-western-sanctions-oil-price-cap-2023-1">previous record of $190 billion</a> notched in 2022."The governments of Russia and China have begun a coordinated effort to implement the agreements reached at the supreme level," Mishustin said, <a href="https://tass.com/politics/1622087" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to state-run Tass.</a>Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Moscow has relied more on China, especially as a market for its crude oil exports, after Western countries imposed sanctions. This year, Russia could supply up to 40% of China's energy, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said at the forum.Additionally, around 70% of the trade between China and Russia are denominated in China's yuan or Russia's ruble, per an estimate from Andrey Kostin, the chief executive of one of Russia's state-run banks.Meanwhile, China's premier Li Qiang told Mishustin in a meeting on Wednesday that the government was willing to take their partnership to a "new level," <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/chinese-premier-willing-work-with-russia-take-pragmatic-cooperation-new-level-2023-05-24/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reuters</a> reported.Russia and China have made particular efforts to strengthen economic ties over the past year, and the two nations have joined forces in shunning the use of the US dollar.In April, Russia had <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/russia-china-yuan-renminbi-reserves-ruble-forex-sales-energy-revenue-2023-2">around $45 billion in yuan reserves</a> that it began using to cover its budget deficit, and it's now <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/dollar-dominance-russia-china-rouble-yuan-brics-reserve-currency-imf-2022-6">creating a new reserve currency with China</a> and other BRICS nations that could potentially challenge the greenback.

Russia says trade with China will hit a record $200 billion this year as Moscow and Beijing deepen economic ties

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A Russian former senior lieutenant has defected and admitted the army tortures Ukrainians. </li><li>Konstantin Yefremov told the BBC of horrific abuses, including threats of rape and castration.</li></ul>A former Russian army officer has described horrifying interrogations and the use of torture on Ukrainian war prisoners, speaking as the highest-ranking recruit to defect from his country so far. Konstantin Yefremov, formerly a senior lieutenant, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64470092" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the BBC</a> how he initially tried to resign his post but was sent into war, where he says he saw stunning abuses of power. He was eventually dismissed, and fled Russia after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-speech-partial-military-mobilization-draft-reservists-ukraine-war-2022-9">President Vladimir Putin's announcement of a second mobilization</a> in the fall of 2022, he said. But during his time serving in occupied Zaporizhzhia, in southern Ukraine, he said he saw Russian soldiers looting everything from lawnmowers to bicycles, and threatening prisoners with rape and castration. At one site, interrogations and torture would go on every night, "sometimes twice a day," he said.Insider was unable to verify his claims. The BBC verified his identity as a soldier, and that he had served in the places he described.In one instance, Yefremov said, a captured sniper was threatened with castration by a colonel the others regarded as "crazy." The colonel in charge "hit him, he pulled the Ukrainian's trousers down and asked if he was married," he said. "'Yes,' the prisoner replied. 'Then someone bring me a mop,' said the colonel. 'We'll turn you into a girl and send your wife the video.'"He also said that at the same post — in a town near Melitopol called Bilmak — a prisoner had his teeth knocked out. He was then blindfolded and told he would be shot in the head — but instead the colonel shot just on either side of his head, deafening him, he said.In October last year, the UN released a report saying that it had found evidence of <a href="https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2F77%2F533&amp;Language=E&amp;DeviceType=Desktop&amp;LangRequested=False" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"an array" of human rights abuses in Ukraine</a> during a monitoring visit early in the war. The "vast majority" of those were perpetrated by Russian troops, it said. "The Commission documented patterns of summary executions, unlawful confinement, torture, ill-treatment, and rape and other sexual violence committed in areas occupied by Russian armed forces," the report said. Yefremov, who called himself "anti-war," did not describe participating in any of the abuses he talked about, and said that in the three years ahead of the 2022 conflict his main job as a soldier had been in mine clearances in Chechnya.On Wednesday, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin alleged that his office had uncovered evidence of 65,000 Russian war crimes in newly liberated parts of Ukraine, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/ukraine-russia-war-65000-war-crimes-committed-prosecutor-general-says.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as CNBC reported</a>. Yefremov's testimony comes as part of the latest — and most senior — of a string of public denunciations from defected members of either the Russian army or the Wagner Group, the notorious mercenary army fighting on Putin's behalf. Attempting to leave either is extremely risky.Yefremov told the BBC that he hid in his attic when Putin announced the second mobilization, and only escaped Russia with the help of Gulagu.net, a human rights organization. Former Wagner Group soldier Andrey Medvedev also fled the conflict in early January. His lawyer <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-mercenary-commander-seeking-asylum-in-norway-willing-to-cooperate-2023-1">told Insider's Joshua Zitser</a> that he feared for his life as he scrambled over the Russian border to Norway. The Wagner Group in particular threatens to kill any soldier who abandons his post. That threat appeared to be borne out when a video circulated, in November, of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prigozhin-celebrates-apparent-execution-of-surrendered-russian-soldier-2022-11">the brutal killing of Yevgeniy Nuzhin</a>, a recaptured soldier who said he had surrendered to Ukraine.

Russian army officer defects, describes widespread torture including threats to castrate a Ukrainian and send his wife the video

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich was among seven Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the <keyword id="11897975" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="uk" source="Orion">UK</keyword> on Thursday.</li><li>Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller were also included in the list.</li></ul>The United Kingdom announced on Thursday that it had sanctioned seven more Russian oligarchs.These include Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, founder of Russian aluminum group Rusal Oleg Deripaska, and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, the UK government said in a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/abramovich-and-deripaska-among-seven-oligarchs-targeted-in-estimated-15bn-sanction-hit">press release</a>. The other oligarchs include Alexei Miller, Gazprom CEO; Andrey Kostin, chairman of VTB bank; Nikolai Tokarev president of the <keyword id="11894337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword> state-owned pipeline company Transneft; and Dmitri Lebedev, who is chairman of the board of directors of Bank Rossiya, per the UK government."These oligarchs — who have a collective net worth of around £15bn — will have their assets in the UK frozen, they are banned from travelling here and no UK citizen or company may do business with them," the UK government said in the release.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in the release: "There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin's vicious assault on <keyword id="11985141" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ukraine" source="Orion">Ukraine</keyword>."<div type="image" title="Boris Johnson at Uxbridge police station grimacing with an officer behind him" height="3446" width="5179" msid="90143623" hostid="261"></div>The seven men are among the Russian oligarchs and billionaires hit by <keyword id="12754126" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sanctions" source="Orion">sanctions</keyword> because of their ties to President Vladimir Putin since his troops invaded Ukraine two weeks ago.Abramovich, who has a net worth of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/roman-abramovich/?sref=lAVQtUwz">$13.6 billion</a>, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, hasn't been sanctioned by any other country yet. He <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-oligarch-roman-abramovich-will-sell-english-club-chelsea-fc-2022-3">announced</a> last week that he was selling Chelsea FC, with an asking price of $2.5 billion, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/sports/soccer/chelsea-roman-abramovich.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a> reported. Deripaska, who has spoken out against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, was already sanctioned in the US.The UK previously <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-sanctions-5-russia-banks-3-people-over-ukraine-2022-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sanctioned</a> three Russian oligarchs, including Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, and Igor Rotenberg, in its first move to punish Russia for attacking Ukraine.

Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned by the UK, along with 6 more Russian oligarchs

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A <keyword id="11897975" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="uk" source="Orion">UK</keyword> housing minister wants to "explore" the idea of using Russian oligarchs' properties for refugees.</li><li>"We're not talking about permanent confiscation," <keyword id="12110220" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="michael-gove" source="Orion">Michael Gove</keyword> said Sunday. </li></ul>UK Housing Minister Michael Gove said he wants to "explore" the idea of using the properties of sanctioned Russian oligarchs to house refugees fleeing <keyword id="11985141" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ukraine" source="Orion">Ukraine</keyword>."I want to explore an option which would allow us to use the homes and properties of sanctioned individuals for as long as they are sanctioned for humanitarian and other purposes," Gove told BBC Television on Sunday, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-says-looking-using-sanctioned-oligarch-properties-refugees-2022-03-13/">Reuters</a> reported. "There is quite a high legal bar to cross and we're not talking about permanent confiscation," Gove added, per the outlet. "But we are saying, 'you're sanctioned, you're supporting Putin, this home is here, you have no right to use or profit from it' and ... if we can use it in order to help others let's do that."Following <keyword id="11894337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword>'s invasion of Ukraine, the UK government sanctioned several oligarchs, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/roman-abramovich-sanctions-oleg-deripaska-russian-oligarch-billionaires-2022-3">resulting in banning them from traveling to the country, freezing their assets</a>, and prohibiting them from conducting business with any UK company or citizen. Those included on the UK's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-are-the-russian-oligarchs-uk-sanctions-list-roman-abramovich-2022-3#2-oleg-deripaska-the-billionaire-sanctioned-by-the-us-in-2018-has-stakes-in-en-group-the-energy-company-owns-uc-rusal-one-of-the-worlds-largest-aluminum-producers-3">list</a> are Roman Abramovich, Oleg Deripaska, Igor Ivanovich Sechin, Andrey Kostin, and Alexei Miller."There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin's vicious assault on Ukraine," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/abramovich-and-deripaska-among-seven-oligarchs-targeted-in-estimated-15bn-sanction-hit">March 10 press release.</a>Earlier this month, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60555472">the United Nations said</a> over 2 million people have fled Ukraine to escape the war. As <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/brits-get-350-pounds-month-open-homes-ukraine-refugees-2022-03-13/">Reuters reported,</a> Britain officials announced that they will give about $456 dollars to families who can offer refugees housing for a minimum of six months.When Gove was questioned if he himself would take in a refugee, he said that he would, according to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/russian-oligarchs-mansions-ukraine-refugees-b2034756.html">The Independent</a>. "I'm exploring what I can do, I know that there are others who have. Without going into my personal circumstances, there are a couple of things I need to sort out, but yes," Gove said, according to the outlet.

UK housing official says he wants to 'explore' the idea of using the sanctioned properties of Russian oligarchs to aid refugees

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>The head of one of Russia's largest banks likened the EU's decision to extend the sanctions imposed on Russia to an act of economic war.
"We have quite a strong opinion on sanctions. Sanctions, in other words, are economic war against Russia," Andrey Kostin, the CEO of VTB bank, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102382917">told CNBC in Moscow</a> on Thursday.
"Economic war will definitely have negative implications for the Russian economy, but more than that it will have very negative implications for political dialogue and security in Europe," he noted, adding that sanctions were "the wrong way to treat Russia."
On Thursday, the EU foreign ministers agreed to extend the sanctions against Russia by six months following some <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/greece-syriza-turning-into-europes-nightmare-2015-1">opposition from Greece</a>. The EU foreign ministers have yet to reach an agreement on whether or not they will add new people and prepare new measures.
This latest round of sanctions are the EU's response to the escalation of violence in Ukraine over the weekend when Russian-backed rebels <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-ten-killed-in-rebel-shelling-of-east-ukrainian-city-of-mariupol-police-2015-1">launched</a> an assault on the vital Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, killing 30 people and injuring 83. 
The US and the EU have imposed multiple rounds of coercive sanctions on Russia since March 2014 in an effort to stop the state from further aggression in Ukraine. 
The Western-imposed sanctions are part of a larger strategic geopolitical plan called "the weaponization of finance," which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/weaponization-of-finance-eurasia-group-2015-1">Ian Bremmer defined</a> as the "systematic use of carrots (access to capital markets) and sticks (varied types of sanctions) as tools of coercive diplomacy." 
The basic strategy is that Western nations impose sanctions on Russia, which they consider to be a "rogue" state, in an effort to force Russia to change its behavior if it wishes to have the sanctions lifted or to have access to capital markets again.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>The Russian economy has been seriously bruised over the past year, partially because of these Western sanctions and partially because of the oil price drop (which led to the ruble crisis). Consequently, it's not surprising that Russian bankers and business owners like Kostin aren't too keen on additional economic pressures.
There has even been some buzz that Russia might be blocked from SWIFT (which provides a network that enables financial institutions around the world to work together) if things further escalate in the Ukraine crisis. What that means, basically, is that Russia would no longer have access to the global financial system, which would put it in pretty much the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/01/27/russia-to-retaliate-if-banks-given-swift-kick/">same league as Iran</a>.
"We have already created our system which can replace Swift," Kostin warned at the <a href="http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/772980">Davos conference last week</a>. "We are also in talks with partners from China. But I want to note that if this takes place, US-Russian relations will deteriorate sharply."
"In fact, this is a situation on the verge of war or a Cold War... this is not a matter of VTB or banking system," he added.
You can watch the whole CNBC interview <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102382917">over here</a>.

You Searched For "Andrey Kostin" and got 6 results

India's biggest deal worth Rs 72,800 crores: Essar oil sells to Russia's Rosneft

BI India Bureau

Russia says trade with China will hit a record $200 billion this year as Moscow and Beijing deepen economic ties

Jennifer Sor

Russian army officer defects, describes widespread torture including threats to castrate a Ukrainian and send his wife the video

Mia Jankowicz

Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned by the UK, along with 6 more Russian oligarchs

Kate Duffy

UK housing official says he wants to 'explore' the idea of using the sanctioned properties of Russian oligarchs to aid refugees

Taylor Ardrey

Russian bank boss: sanctions are economic war against Russia

Elena Holodny

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