Putin orders use of cash from wealth funds to support banks

Moscow

MONEY collected in one of Russia's two "rainy day" funds should be used to support domestic banks, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, as he set out efforts to help Moscow counteract Western sanctions and overcome its economic woes.

Broadly shut out of external funding due to sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis, Russia's largest banks such as VTB, Gazprombank and Russian Agriculture Bank are looking to the state fund to help them meet loan demand.

"We have a large amount of internal savings, they should become effective investments," Mr Putin said in his annual state of the union speech. "Using our reserves, firstly, the National Wealth Fund (NWF), I propose to . . . recapitalise leading domestic banks with funds offered . . . to use for lending to the most important projects in the re…