Putin Bank Trail Runs From Communist Cash to Billionaire Buddies

Present and past owners of OAO Bank Rossiya, the only company hit with sanctions for Russia’s takeover of Crimea, include three billionaires, two proteges of a Nobel Laureate and, according to a Spanish prosecutor, one possible mob boss.

Bank Rossiya’s rise from a Communist Party shell company to a conglomerate with $12.6 billion of assets dovetails with President Vladimir Putin’s own ascent to power. At least three of the lender’s early shareholders, including Yury Kovalchuk, who now has 40 percent, and OAO Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin have homes at Putin’s lakeside dacha compound near St. Petersburg. Another stakeholder is one of Putin’s relatives.