Vladimir Putin said that Russia was aware of pressure that the United States puts on France over the deal to build the Mistral warships for Russia and views it as blackmail, RIA reports. "What is being done now with the French banks causes nothing but outrage in Europe and in our country as well," Putin said at a meeting with Russian ambassadors and permanent envoys.
"We are aware of the pressure that our American partners exert on France with a purpose of not to deliver the Mistral warships to Russia. And we know even that the United States hinted that if the French do not deliver the Mistrals, then sanctions will gradually be lifted from the banks, or at least be reduced to minimum. If this is not blackmail, then what is it?" he added.
His comments came after leading French bank BNP Paribas pleaded guilty Monday to US criminal charges of violating sanctions on Iran and Sudan for eight years and was fined a record $8.9 billion.
France's BNP Paribas not afraid of US sanctions, has sufficient funding to pay fine
France's largest bank BNP Paribas has sufficient funding to back the fine and penalties it needs to pay under settlements with US authorities over sanctions busting, the French bank's top executives said on Tuesday.
"Our liquidity situation, we always guided it as being ample," said Chief Financial Officer Lars Machenil, "At Q1 we had an overall excess of stable funding of 100 billion in euros out of which 50 billion was in US dollars. Yesterday when I looked into the systems..., that figure was basically unchanged at the end of the (second) quarter. This should allow having relevant cash for the settlement."
Financial Officer added that there was "no hurry" to seek the additional tier 1 funding that is seen as a key measure of bank stability as a result of having to pay the fine, set at almost $9 under a settlement announced late on Monday in the US.
Machenil also said that bank plans to offer cash dividends for this year at 1.5 euro per share, the same as it was in 2013.
France's largest bank becomes the seventh bank to settle violations case. "Like other banks, BNP hid the names of Sudanese and Iranian clients when sending transactions coursing through its New York operations and the broader American financial system," media reports.
France's BNP to pay US $9 bln for violating American sanctions
BNP Paribas has neared a deal with US prosecutors that would see the French bank pay $8 billion to $9 billion and accept other punitive measures for violating American sanctions, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
US regulators and BNP Paribas executives are trying to hash out a settlement following charges the bank breached US sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba between 2002 and 2009 by handling $30 billion worth of transactions with them.
As part of the deal, BNP would plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and would face a months-long ban on its ability to make transactions in US dollars, the Journal cited people familiar with the discussions as saying.
But it stressed that the two sides had only reached a general outline of a deal, though negotiations were in the final stage.
Senior BNP executive Dominique Remy resigned in mid-May after New York state banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky named him as one of the 12 officials who should step down due to their roles in the scandal, people familiar with the matter told AFP.
During a period that lasted more than five years, BNP used regional banks abroad to route funds linked to Sudan-based companies and government agencies, even as the United States and other countries said Khartoum was practicing genocide, according to the Journal.
It said US authorities scrutinized a total exceeding $100 billion of suspicious transactions, eventually focusing on about $30 billion said to have been hidden deliberately to avoid US detection.
Most of the transactions involved Sudan, although others included Iran and other countries under US sanctions.
BNP is expected to plead guilty in early July, the Journal said, though precise terms have not been set and the deal could be delayed.
French officials, including President Francois Hollande, have criticized the size of the fine under discussion as disproportionate to the offences.
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