Raiffeisen Shares Plunge: Short Seller Calls It a "Sanctions-Circumvention Channel" Against Russia

Shares of Austria's Raiffeisen Bank plummeted during trading on September 17 after U.S. activist short-seller Grizzly Research announced it had opened a short position against the bank, calling it “a key channel for circumventing sanctions in Russia’s wartime economy.”

Raiffeisen has denied the allegations. The Austrian bank is one of the few Western financial institutions that continued to operate in Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, Bloomberg notes.

Raiffeisen Bank shares fell 8.2%, 6.5%, and 6%, respectively, pulling back from the 18-year high reached earlier this month on the Vienna Stock Exchange, Bloomberg reported. Investors reacted to a report by U.S. short-seller Grizzly Research, which claimed that, according to its data, Raiffeisen Bank was linked to $1.19 billion in trading transactions involving goods subject to EU, U.S., and U.K. sanctions against Russia. According to Grizzly Research, the Austrian bank “has become a key channel for circumventing sanctions amid Russia’s war economy,” while Raiffeisen “simultaneously assures investors, regulators, and the public that it is winding down its business there [in Russia],” the short-seller noted.

According to the study, his conclusions are based on Russian customs data spanning nearly four years—from 2022 to early 2025. However, as Bloomberg notes, they do not confirm any payments, financing, or violations of the sanctions regime.

“We are confident in the reliability of our compliance systems, which have been repeatedly tested both before and after the start of the full-scale invasion. Upon our initial review of [the Grizzly Research report], we also identified a number of factually incorrect and misleading claims,” said Rupert Rife, a spokesperson for the bank, commenting on the short seller’s findings.

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