UAE Banks Have Launched A Large-scale Sweep Of Russian Businesses

• 3.08.2025, 15:28

Ukrainian intelligence has learned the details.

Financial institutions in the United Arab Emirates have begun a large-scale "purge" of Russian business.

The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine reported that this in July 2025.

In July 2025, UAE banks sharply strengthened financial control over companies from Russia.

According to the intelligence service, about 30% of firms received warnings to close accounts or restrict operations.

The main reasons for such measures were:

ignoring or failing to respond to bank inquiries in a timely manner,

errors in documents or lack of information,

inconsistency of cash flows with the declared type of activity,

connections with countries on the FATF blacklist,

as well as relations with sub-sanctioned individuals or companies.

The scrutiny was stepped up after British and EU sanctions

The first large-scale inspections began as early as February 2024, just after Britain imposed sanctions on Emirati companies that helped Russia circumvent the restrictions.

The turning point was the EU's 18th package of sanctions, which included Emirati entities for the first time.

This prompted UAE banks to take even tougher measures against Russian businesses.

The United Arab Emirates only recently got off the FATF's "gray list," and is now trying to avoid being included again.