MOSCOW, September 19 (RIA Novosti) - It will be hard for Russia to sustain economic growth under intensifying Western sanctions, the head of Russia's biggest bank Sberbank Herman Gref said Friday in a live interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.
"We have to realize that under conditions of increasing sanctions, it will be very hard to raise the economy, to maintain economic growth. This is why it is very important to borrow home resources on the one hand, and to stabilize the situation in every way on the other," he said.
Gref added that the circumstances surrounding the bank's sources of finance have not changed dramatically since the Western economic sanctions against Russia had been introduced.
The Sberbank chief also noted that the bank is considering placing its securities on Asian markets.
"Singapore is the friendliest jurisdiction from any point of view," he argued.
The United States, the European Union and a number of other nations have introduced several waves of economic sanctions against Moscow since Crimea's reunification with Russia. The latest round targeted several key sectors of Russian economy, including banking. The restrictions, imposed by Brussels and Washington, seriously complicate access to Western finance for a number of Russian state-controlled banks.
