Putin clears Moscow Credit Bank to handle Sova Capital's Russian shares

What changed and why it matters

A September presidential order gives Moscow Credit Bank the green light to handle Russian company shares owned by Sova Capital, the failed London broker. The authorization lets the bank proceed without getting sign-off from Sova's administrators at Teneo Financial Advisory Ltd., a person familiar with the matter said.

The permission spans holdings in Rosneft PJSC and Gazprom PJSC valued in the tens of millions of dollars. Those securities had been effectively stuck since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, trapped in Russia by sanctions even though they sat under the administrators' control in the UK. With this order, the securities fall outside UK powers to stop the movement of Russian assets.

According to the person, Teneo declined to move any holdings to Moscow Credit Bank and has escalated the issue to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. The same person added that Teneo is compliant with UK law.

The cross-border legal grind

Russia is testing the seams between English and Russian courts to reach frozen assets, and this case fits that pattern. Earlier this year, Sova faced a lawsuit from Moscow Credit Bank in the Moscow Arbitration Court seeking more than $20 million. Sova also failed in Belgium to free assets caught by sanctions through Russia's National Settlement Depository.

The bigger backdrop is massive. Western governments immobilized about $300 billion of the Russian central bank's sovereign assets after the invasion. Of that, $185 billion sits at Brussels-based Euroclear. Euroclear brought a separate case asking a Russian judge to shield it from an order that would force a payment to Moscow of about $250 billion.

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Who owns what and how we got here

Based in London, Sova ran a brokerage under the supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority, serving institutional and corporate clients with access to Russian markets since 2015. The owner was Moscow-based billionaire Roman Avdeev, who also held control of Moscow Credit Bank at that time. At the end of 2020, Sova's UK business reported total assets of $2.59 billion.

The firm collapsed into insolvency in March 2022 and Teneo was appointed administrator. While neither Sova nor Avdeev are under UK sanctions, the collapse showed how those policies hit Russia-linked firms.

When the firm became insolvent, Sova's lawyers stated the company had more than $2 billion in client funds, was unable to meet its debts, and was heavily exposed to Russian interests. Those assets were extremely hard to sell to Western buyers, and in 2023 England's High Court authorized Teneo to dispose of a bundle of securities to Avdeev, which enabled him to recoup some cash.

Moscow Credit Bank, a systemically important lender with about $8 billion in problem loans, saw another shareholder change in 2025, though details were not disclosed.

The bottom line for your portfolio

This order lets a sanctioned Russian bank deal in specific Sova-owned shares - Rosneft and Gazprom - worth tens of millions of dollars, sidestepping UK consent. It is another data point in a broader fight over frozen assets that spans courts, currencies and compliance regimes. Teneo, the UK Treasury, OFSI and the FCA declined to comment. For investors, the takeaway is straightforward: legal risk can change who controls assets and when they trade, even without a market move.

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