Since Vnesheconombank (VEB) was reorganised in June 2007, absorbing Russian Development Bank and Roseximbank, its chairman, Vladimir Dmitriev, has barely had time to catch his breath. As the global financial crisis took hold in the third quarter of 2008, the bank became a vital policy tool for government intervention.
VEB took over a wide range of assets, including two distressed banks, Globex and Svyaz-Bank, and lent $4.5bn to Oleg Deripaska's Rusal group. And beyond Russia's borders, it bought Prominvestbank out of administration in Ukraine. Since the end of 2009, Mr Dmitriev has been able to take stock and plan an exit from the emergency assistance phase.
