Meeting with Sberbank Management Board Chairman German Gref

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Gref, we maintain close communication, but I would nevertheless like you to update me on Sberbank's most recent performance.

Before we begin, I would like to point out - and I am pleased to do so - that despite major difficulties and issues that arose as a result of the events that we are well aware of and the difficulties that they attempted and are still attempting to create for us in various areas, including finance, the professionalism of our banking community and government agencies, as well as the Central Bank efforts, we have managed on the whole, I want to emphasise this, we have managed on the whole to overcome these challenges.

I would like to thank you and your entire team. Not only has Sber worked through this difficult period, but it has rebuilt its work almost in full. Its operations are profitable, steady and unfaltering, which is another sign of our financial system's stability. Sberbank is a leader and a bedrock foundation of this system. Its steady operation is a very good indicator.

As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. After all, this is a powerful step towards greater economic and financial sovereignty, which is crucial. Importantly, the economy and the bank's clients should know that Sberbank is stable, which sends a strong message to the entire economy and a large number of bank clients.

I am aware that you are working hard to improve customer services and to introduce innovative technology, which creates a significant effect. I believe - you will probably describe it in more professional language - the solutions implemented earlier helped the bank navigate this difficult period.

CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of SberbankGerman Gref Gref GermanChairman of the Management Board and CEO of Sberbank: Mr President, thank you very much for your assessment.

Indeed, it was a difficult period for us, but we did not stop working for a single day or for a single minute despite the unprecedented attacks against us. We are the most attacked entity in the country. We have never seen attacks of such magnitude and complexity before.

However, so far, we have managed to remain absolutely stable. We learned from these attacks and became more experienced. We are upgrading our security models, and I hope we will be able to provide the full range of services to our retail and corporate clients even in the most challenging circumstances.

To be continued.