cooperation in the black sea region and a peaceful settlement in the middle east, the antalya diplomatic forum opens in turkey, sergei lavrov will take part in its work, including a series of bilateral meetings. new discussion in the un security council again. to no avail, a statement condemning israel's actions in the gas strip was blocked by the united states. according to the latest data, as a result of an idf strike on people waiting for humanitarian aid, 112 people were killed and more than 700 were injured. this week vtb will present development strategy for the next 3 years. the bank relies on active work with the regions, technological sovereignty and support

for key sectors of the russian economy, about the goals and objectives of vtb, about the bank’s role in supporting national projects, and also about what clients can expect? in an interview with my colleague alexander korievsky, the head of vtb, andrey kostin, will talk. alexander, i greet you, i give you the floor. yes, daria, thank you, of course, we are now in the federation tower, in the vtb office, this is a live broadcast, and we just now. we will discuss how the bank and business in general will carry out the president’s instructions, the plans that were announced yesterday, the president spoke a lot the day before about the development of the economy, put this at the forefront, so it will be very interesting to find out how our leading bank will implement this, me in the studio, i wanted to say that we are visiting the office , which is very unusual for us, but nevertheless, andrei kostin, head of btb. i greet you, well,

you and i have swapped places here for a while, we usually record interviews, we already have such a small tradition at this time, around the end of february, beginning of march, to talk about what is happening, of course, over these few years the situation has changed dramatically, but the problems remain, there are many of them, and of course, of course, the president spoke a lot about them yesterday; even he spoke more, as i see it, about prospects, about plans for strategic development. of course, any development requires money, money is the banks, and all week you spend your presentation, your strategic program, and like me i understand that it very much resonates with the fact that the tasks that the president set, yes, thank you very much, it’s good that we switched places, your job is painfully difficult, i probably wouldn’t have been able to cope, and you know, the president’s speech was really yesterday , it, of course, was not just a speech by the president, but the speech of a presidential candidate was aimed not at one to 2 years, but at least at...

at healthcare, at improving quality with an emphasis on the social sphere, on education, housing, in general , everything for a person, in this, probably the main message, the main element of our president’s policy, always puts people at the center of everything, because the economy, well, it is not... for itself, it is, of course, so that the standard of living of people increases, so that they live, people lived better, more comfortably, and despite the fact that, although the poverty level has decreased very sharply in the country in recent years, the new plans, they should greatly improve the lives of people in the less privileged layers of the middle class, so i think the program is very interesting , very important, and really program... and

for us, it just so happened that we had also prepared a shorter three-year program just at this time, but it has much in common with this, i think that from the point of view of work, maybe with large business, this is primarily assistance in the structural restructuring of our economy, import substitution, the creation of new industries, high-tech industries, the creation of russian sovereignty in key areas of the economy, we have a lot of experience. investment activities, we are for these years, somewhere over the last 15 years, we have attracted at least 30 trillion rubles of investment money into the economy, and of course, in this direction we have outlined a whole series of further steps related to the creation of new mechanisms for investment, perestroika, well, in general, western investment has never played a role a big role, they have always been less than 5%, so you probably shouldn’t regret it so much, but the work...

a system based on the participation of such countries, especially brix of the largest countries as china, india, arab countries, about this same yesterday the president spoke about the role of the new state, about changing the balance of power today in the global economic and financial arena , we must do this, we must create our own dubai-clear, we must create our own not eurobands, but some kind, i don’t know, aman gangs or something else, or chinese gangs, we must... create a settlement system without swift, this is the simplest thing, all that is really required here is an agreement, and we really hope that russia’s work as chairman brix this year will seriously advance this work, we see that the government is involved, the ministry of finance is involved, and we interact very closely providing

both expert support and practical support, because today we have the most developed network of our subsidiary banks in friendly countries, in china there are...

were in a hurry and did not want to enter the world market and with their own currency, they still strictly regulate the yuan exchange rate, yes, they still use the internal and external yuan, so they must cross the border as soon as the yuan becomes freely convertible, as floating exchange rate, and so on , of course it will live a completely different life, we need to push our chinese friends towards this, how to push this in the good sense of the word, well, they are not really being pushed yet, of course, but on the other hand, as i understand it, ... you can work with them with smaller banks, they make contact, you can, of course, i repeat, as long as we work in the old coordinate system, while we use western, because all western tools, because in order to place some security, everyone is running to western lawyers, to western financiers, to western investment banks, we

will never get out of this circle, we definitely need to create a parallel system where we could freely work, in particular, with the use of digital currencies, but not left-wing currencies where they speculate, and those? settlement ones, which would be in the currency system, which would really be the central banks of all our countries, well, is it just cbdc or are there still some stable coins there, i don’t know, well, i don’t know, we have them there now this is again a subject of negotiations, yes, but we have already tested the calculations with a number of countries, but we need a system that is not bilateral, we need a multilateral system, of course, unification is important here, and i believe that brick is the best launching pad for this, because it unites large countries, it is everything

... as i understand it, your bank also had a lot of problems, i’m being so gentle, that’s not the right word, 2 years ago, that means the european authorities, well , first of all the german ones, that means they took control away from us, suspended us from management, they put a temporary the administration, which means they then made a decision to liquidate the bank, now they somehow, my lawyers can’t understand it, some kind of legal casuistry, they say that it turns out that we didn’t own it there for the last decades, they demanded it.

european officials, of whom there are a lot , apparently, they earn a lot of money , they have nothing to do, they invent these kinds of things, but there should be a clear understanding, i don’t know, maybe our government sometimes talks about this too modestly, i am a person unencumbered by any power real, so i can say that i am sure that the response from our side will be absolutely adequate, because according to the central bank of the ministry of finance, we have collateral , as it were, for the value of western investors, private, by the way, no less than the funds that are blocked with us the central bank, so if the west confiscates this money, the confiscation of these investments, the funds of various western banks that are located here, will immediately follow. as long as they are frozen, as long as dividends are accrued on them, as long as they receive, they are here

they get there, no, there are not enough of them here and so on, yes, so there will absolutely be a mirror and i am sure a quick decision, and there should be no doubt that politically the authorities there, which means, not being able to partially, say, the same americans, who are now stuck with the decision to finance the war further. they can use russian funds, but the authorities will feed and carry out their policies and war at the expense of funds, at the expense of the funds of their own investors, who will lose this money here, that’s for sure, westerners must understand businessmen should be concerned about this, because russia is never the first to attack and will not do anything, but we are very closely monitoring what is happening, the russians always come for their money, they say that this is bismarck.

to the tasks that the president set, he talked a lot about the economy, you know, my colleagues first asked me, well, i

’m kind of an economic observer, after all , more than fate, lately i have to talk a lot about politics, because everything is too interconnected, but he says we have so much money is enough in general, you said that we have a lot of money, we have enough money for all our plans, because the president very clearly said that behind each figure that he named there was something more than simple, but these figures were agreed upon, including in the government, with the ministry of finance, we have a clear calculation. i think that the government in this regard, the president, understands well that one of our strengths, one of our strengths, and today is our very balanced monetary and financial policy, budget policy, so everything is calculated, and to be honest, i’m always trying to push the government to spend more , it prints, borrows, you know, it doesn’t strictly adhere to this, although probably, and moreover, i can say that, in principle , all the main programs that were implemented before february twenty

-two, they continue too, despite the rather rapid increase in military spending, which, by the way, is also pushing the economy towards growth, and there are many positive factors, by the way, which is why the russian economy turned out to be tenacious indeed, and i think that what has been done over the past 20 years is working today. but there are also advantages in the sense that we, having turned out to be a plus in the policy of the west, many of our issues have become aggravated and we began to solve them more quickly, yes, well, there is such a russian, probably, there is such a russian tradition , here, but many issues are being resolved successfully, although i wouldn’t take it so easily that we can handle everything there, we see that we

also have problems in the field of high technology, but we also have friends, the west’s calculations that... we will remain alone did not come true, because practically the entire developing world, and it is with us today, and despite all the intimidation and others, they interact, it’s all there they are also trying to maneuver somehow, you can understand them, but we are quite fast, look, even taking banking technologies, we are practically completing import substitution now and are switching to 100% our own programs and that’s it, we did all this quite quickly, but the banking sector is quite advanced

emphasized that these are specific plans, and not some wishful thinking that are simply being implemented there before the elections, yes, these are real development plans, and these are plans that need to be fulfilled, so that indeed, as you rightly noted, there is no need for a hat of indoctrination here, yes, when it was like in military affairs at first, now there are a lot of problems that need to be solved, the president clearly outlined what needs to be done, as for banks, banks have indeed been earning a lot lately, you said last year that this year will be different chocolate, like the last one, but it turns out that it’s about the same, no, it even shows that i think that the result of this year may even be somewhat superior, and last year, at least they will not be lower, yes, yes, we had we got a big blow, of course, in 2022, we were the first to come under sanctions, of course,

we have a large foreign network, a large foreign business, they froze us, took away all this, but here we are...

let's look at the results, because raising the rate is, of course, the most radical and quickest solution to the problem with inflation, so well, there are always several approaches, i repeat, i always usually advocate for a less stringent policy, well, i am for debt, i believe that we have a very low debt, but the minister of finance is right when he says debt can be it would have been doubled if not for such, not such, not such rates, but at a rate of 5%. this probably shouldn't be done, so i think the policy is measured, i think the central bank is being used.

there is an initiative not to issue immediately, let’s say a loan is approved online, to issue it through day, at least once they complained to me too, i say that well, the person collected the money, left himself, did everything himself, confirmed that we are asking questions, is there any pressure, is there any advice, no, no, no, that’s it, i’m saying, what ’s the complaint against the bank, you’re issuing loans too quickly, so i think that the bank is trying to issue loans in 3 minutes or in four, but it seems, it seems like everything is for the sake of the client, you know ? in fact, that’s why i think that this is a pause to cool down or to understand in more detail, in principle, it is justified, well, listen, when you take out a loan, well, well, 5 minutes,

which is actually a lot, 24, well, of course, you don’t do it every day, this is quite a big step, you know, so i think that here it is quite possible to talk about some reasonable deadlines, but life, struggle, competition led to the fact that they thought the faster the better, but this does not turn out to be the case in every case, well, that is, you are a supporter that.. . financial markets on the eve and the use of the market funds mechanism for financing projects in the plans that exist, and as i understand it, vtb is also actively entering and operating in this market, historically it has been so, but there are plans here, as i understand it, your strategy too, yes, you know, we are very active there were supporters of... participants in the process of re-registration of the papers that were there, the transfer of their innovations in russia,

transfers from dollars there, euros into rubles, the last stage we were also actively involved as experts, this was the decision on the possibility of actually exchanging russian-russian holders of western securities for money means western investors whose money is here for me. now, foreign holders of funds frozen here will be able to use this money to buy russian shares from ours, to buy foreign shares from this or that security.

holders who in russia cannot receive them there, but for this the western, western regulator must give permission, so we are now launching a scheme, if western regulators give permission, this means that western investors will be able pull out your money, in this case, if we talked about mutual freezing, mutual withdrawal, then here it’s the other way around about mutual exchange , yes, that is, we the state is ready to give these funds back, but in exchange for what the russians , for now, this scheme will only be valid for those who... the amount - purchases of foreign shares and securities is no more than 100,000 rubles. well, what is 100,000 and you know 85% 80%. 80% of clients would invest well, for you maybe that thousand see nothing but for for for i was also amazed, but overwhelming from the point of view of mass participation , it may be 10% there, just in terms of money, but in terms of people, in terms of heads, it is 80%, somewhere maybe a little less, a little more, but this is the overwhelming majority, so we were also there

to return everything , but for now... we got a little stuck here in due time, and we want, well, people, you know, we worked a lot, we developed a new office design so that it would be, so that it would be, so that people would want to come there, this is also very important, yes, and i was once in the same office, which means it’s a former church, there are walls somewhere smeared over, at the top, which means angels are still flying there and it’s all peeling off, this, this is wrong, not in relation to the religious

institution that was once there, not in relation. jar, so now there are no such things, what i mean is that we have developed a new format and a light format, smaller and cheaper, but nevertheless also comfortable and full-fledged formats, because we repeat, people began to go to offices less often, but anyway, they want the office to be within walking distance so that they can come in case of any operations, need or some kind of banking operations, you can consult, talk , they don’t want to do it over the phone, so everything is not as clear as they thought it was possible... although we have banks, you know, which don’t, but they i also think they are starting to do this now, we are at least a bank, which in the traditional sense we want to have offices with a fairly wide network, well, yes, some large banks, we won’t name names, are closing offices, some are opening not so many either, it’s just there there were probably too many offices, you know, andrey lenevich, concluding the conversation, after all - as i understand it, the plans are huge, but you have enough money for them, so to speak, an immodest question,

well, profits are growing.