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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Over 15 million rubles for Russia’s defense orders.
The Russian subsidiary of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International JSC, Raiffeisenbank, has in recent years processed payments for Russia’s state defense orders. Journalists from the Schemes project confirmed this by analyzing the activity of one of the contractors of Russia’s military-industrial complex — a key supplier of lubricants for the Russian defense industry and army, the company Qualitety.
As Schemes established during the analysis of the Russian company’s tax invoices, most of the VPK (defense-industrial complex) enterprises to which Qualitet sells its products settle payments through Promsvyazbank. At the same time, the company not only sells lubricants but also purchases products for production needs. These purchases are periodically marked as payments for state defense orders, and in these transactions the Russian Raiffeisen Bank appears, which continued to operate in Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The publication notes that after Western competitors left the Russian market, Qualitet became the monopolist producer of aviation, hydraulic, and motor oils with specific additives for military equipment.
Bank records of Qualitet show money was debited from the company’s accounts in Promsvyazbank as a “payment for the state defense order” and credited to accounts at Raiffeisenbank JSC. The recipients of these funds were other Raiffeisenbank clients — the steel drum producer Dramtara and the chemical additives plant for polymers, Roshal Plant of Plasticizers.
Only in 2024- and 2025-years were 26 transactions (four in the 2024 year and another 22 – in the 2025) for Russia’s state defense order totaling over 15 million rubles (about 180 thousand dollars at the then exchange rate) to contractor accounts of Qualitet through Raiffeisenbank. In total, over these years the company conducted 344 operations through this bank.
Journalists note that according to Qualitet’s tax documents, settlements for state defense orders are isolated and have the same numeric identifier. It can be seen in the payment order to the bank recipient, Raiffeisenbank JSC, which practically means the bank had the technical ability to identify the payment as defense-related.
In particular, Schemes found at least four cases in which Raiffeisenbank rejected payments to Qualitet in 2025 year. These transactions did not relate directly to defense orders but were payments for foreign-supplied chemical components — from the United Arab Emirates. Then the Austrian bank’s Russian division referred to the bank’s internal policy and asked to “consider other settlement channels.”
At the journalists’ request, Raiffeisen Bank International in Austria did not dispute the transactions themselves, but stated that “the bank is prohibited from refusing to execute internal payments in rubles,” and noted that “cooperation with Qualitet was terminated several years ago.” Nevertheless, in the 2025 year Qualitet had at least four accounts at Raiffeisenbank — ruble, dollar, euro, and yuan.
In March 2026 year Raiffeisen Bank International stated that it had previously announced “the intention to exit the Russian market by selling its Russian subsidiary, JSC Raiffeisenbank.” They added that for the sale of the bank they needed approval from Russian, European, and American regulators, “which makes this process very complex.”
Raiffeisen Bank International is one of the largest Western banks that continued to operate in Russia after 2022 year. According to Reuters, in the 2022 year the Austrian group earned more than half of its profit from the Russian market.
In 2023 year the group again postponed the sale of its subsidiary in the Russian Federation, and in 2024 year again stated its intention to exit the Russian market. In December 2025 year Bloomberg reported that the CEO of Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Johann Strobl, was stepping down, leaving to his successor the task of “solving the problem created by the Russian arm of the Austrian bank.”
The bank has repeatedly been urged to exit the Russian market, both in Ukraine and in Europe, since since 2022 year it paid the Russian budget about 1,9 billion euros in taxes, part of which is spent on military needs.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Російська «дочка» Raiffeisen проводила платежі за оборонними замовленнями РФ — «Схеми»". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZN.ua.
