Andrey Kostin

Andrey Kostin has headed VTB Bank as President and Chairman of the Management Board since 2002 and is a member of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party, serving as one of the bankers closest to the Kremlin.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US, UK, and Canada imposed blocking sanctions against VTB, freezing its assets and banning transactions in their currencies; Kostin himself publicly assured clients that the bank would do "the possible and the impossible" to minimize the damage.

In February 2024, the US Department of Justice charged Kostin with attempting to conceal ownership of two superyachts with a total value of over $135 million and real estate in Aspen, Colorado, and to secretly sell them in circumvention of sanctions—charges which Kostin called baseless and a provocation.

Meanwhile, following the results of 2023, despite the sanctions, VTB reported a record net profit of 432 billion rubles.

Financing Kremlin geopolitical projects; gifts to his mistress Nailya Asker-zade (a $60 million Bombardier aircraft, a $62 million SEA&US yacht).