In 2016, the flamboyant VTB chairman Andrey Kostin dressed up in white tie and tails to conduct a “sanctions symphony” for attendees at the bank’s Russia Calling investment forum in Moscow.
The following year he raised eyebrows by appearing as Stalin under a banner that read “Investors of the world unite”. Last year, slightly less controversially, he was Obi-Wan Kenobi combatting the “Death Star” that has “tried to scare the Republic with sanctions”.
It is tempting to see the refreshments on offer in his lavish office at the top of VTB’s Moscow City tower as symptomatic of the same sense of humour.
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