JPMorgan Assailed by Russia as Bank Blocks Payment

JPMorgan Chase & Co. blocked a payment from a Russian embassy to an affiliate of a U.S.- sanctioned bank, a decision described as “illegal and absurd” by the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.

The biggest U.S. bank thwarted a remittance from the Russian embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan, to Sogaz Insurance Group “under the pretext of anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the United States,” the ministry said yesterday in a statement on its website. Sogaz is part-owned by OAO Bank Rossiya, a St. Petersburg-based lender facing U.S. sanctions over the Ukrainian crisis, according to its website.