"Why be afraid?"

Putin wants to send banks to conquered territories

Russian President Vladimir Putin

(Bild: AFP)

Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has called on his country's banks not to hesitate and to operate in the annexed territories of Ukraine. "What they used to fear, the sanctions, has long since happened. Why be afraid?" Putin said in Moscow on Wednesday at a meeting on the social and economic development of the region. "You have to go to these areas more actively and work there," he said, according to the Tass agency.

Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. After the invasion in 2022, Moscow also declared the Ukrainian administrative regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson to be Russian territory, in violation of international law. In military terms, Russian troops only control part of these territories. Russian banks were already cautious about getting involved in Crimea due to Western sanctions. They are hardly represented in the other regions either.

Pension payments only to recipients with a Russian passport
Putin spoke of the rapid integration of the regions into Russian structures. He said that two million people were already receiving regular pensions and other payments. By 2025, the figure should be five million people. In reality, however, the occupying power is reportedly linking pension payments to the Ukrainians living there accepting Russian passports. The Kremlin leader set the goal of bringing the territories that historically belonged to Russia - as he said - up to the average Russian standard of living by 2030.