Despite the sanctions and since the Ukraine crisis, Russia has landed a huge deal with Glencore (Swiss Trading Firm) and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Qatar.
The Duo will now acquire a 19.5 percent stake (10.2-billion euro/$11 billion) in Rosneft PJSC in this deal which defies the expectations that no investor would dare buy a share in the Russian asset, given Western sanctions against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin.
The emergence of foreign money suggests that investors may now be reassessing the sanctions after the election of Donald J. Trump, who has advocated warming ties with authorities in Moscow.
The deal will bring Moscow $11.3 billion to help plug a widening budget deficit as Russia fights two wars, in Syria and Ukraine, and has struggled to meet pension payments and public-sector payrolls.
The United States decided in 2014 to impose sanctions on Rosneft and other Russian companies in response to Russia’s intervention in the war in eastern Ukraine..
The sanctions limit long-term lending and transfer of American technology for drilling offshore and shale oil deposits.
Mr. Putin termed it “the largest privatization deal, the largest sale and acquisition in the global oil and gas sector in 2016.”
