Kremlin order lets Moscow Credit Bank access Sova Capital securities

What happened

A person familiar with the matter said Putin signed a September order letting Moscow Credit Bank deal in Russian company shares that were held by London-based Sova Capital, without needing consent from Teneo, Sova's UK administrators. The portfolio includes positions in Rosneft PJSC and Gazprom PJSC valued in the tens of millions of dollars.

These assets belong to Sova, yet sanctions stranded them inside Russia, and Teneo had managed them starting from the February 2022 full-scale assault on Ukraine. The order would place these holdings beyond UK powers to stop Russian money from moving, the person said.

The legal chessboard

Earlier this year, Moscow Credit Bank took legal action against Sova in the Moscow Arbitration Court seeking recovery of more than $20 million. The same person said Teneo has not consented to any securities transfers to the bank, considers itself compliant with UK law, and has notified the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. Teneo and the UK Treasury, along with OFSI and the FCA, declined to comment.

The case highlights how Russia is trying to reach frozen assets by forcing clashes between English and Russian courts. It follows a broader playbook in which Russian courts pursue multinationals in other jurisdictions with enforcement orders that can run to eye popping sums. Roughly $300 billion in Russian central bank reserves were frozen after the invasion, including roughly $185 billion parked with Brussels-based Euroclear.

Euroclear has brought its own case to shield itself from a Russian mandate that would compel it to remit roughly $250 billion to Moscow. Separately, Sova lost a Belgian effort to free assets via Russia's National Settlement Depository.

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Who is involved

Since 2015, Sova has run as a UK broker overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority, linking institutional and corporate clients from London to Russian markets. Ownership rested with Moscow-based billionaire Roman Avdeev, who at that time also controlled Moscow Credit Bank.

By year end 2020, Sova's UK arm reported total assets of $2.59 billion. The firm entered insolvency in March 2022 and Teneo was appointed administrator. The UK has sanctioned neither Sova nor Avdeev, but the collapse underscored the wider knock on effects for Russia-linked firms. Sova's lawyers said then that the company had custody of more than $2 billion in client funds, could not meet its debts, and carried significant exposure to Russian interests. Given the near-impossibility of selling those assets to Western buyers, in 2023 Teneo secured consent from England's High Court to dispose of a portfolio of securities to Avdeev, enabling the entrepreneur to recoup funds.

Since April 2022, the UK has sanctioned Moscow Credit Bank. In 2024, Avdeev divested his holding in the bank, selling it to Sergey Sudarikov, his billionaire colleague and business associate. The bank, designated systemically important in Russia and carrying about $8 billion in problem loans, saw another shareholder change in 2025, though details were not disclosed.

What this means for your portfolio

In plain English: a Kremlin order is aiming to move Sova's Russian securities out of UK administrators' practical reach. That shift touches holdings in major Russian companies and plugs into the larger tug of war over frozen assets, from the $185 billion at Euroclear to Russian court demands pegged around $250 billion.

If you hold or track Russia-linked exposure, venue and custody risk are doing as much work as market risk. Expect more court filings, administrator updates and custody reshuffles as UK and Russian processes collide.

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