Putin opens account in bank blacklisted by Washington

President Vladimir Putin opened an account in the Rossija (Russia) bank which was blacklisted by the United States, the Kremlin said Monday. "President's salary will be deposited to that account starting next month," Interfax news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. Putin said Friday he was going to open account in the private Rossija bank in a symbolic gesture of support to the financial institution which was put on the U.S. sanctions list over events in Ukraine. Putin insisted that Rossija had nothing to do with the events in Ukraine and the bank's clients should not suffer, "especially because it bears such a nice name." The bank is the only organization on the Washington's sanction list. All other sanctions' subjects are persons. According to the Rossija's corporate website, the bank was established in 1990 and has been one of the country's oldest private banks. It had been ranked among the top 20 Russian banks by the end of 2012.