OREANDA-NEWS. September 23, 2013. As is standard practice in our industry and in accordance with legislation, VTB takes client confidentiality extremely seriously, and would normally never comment on any allegations of this sort.

However, given the defamatory and highly public nature of these claims, and their relevance to an extremely delicate geopolitical situation, we feel we have no other option but to state that the allegations made by the four US senators are completely unfounded. VTB does not hold funds belonging to President Assad or any other member of the Syrian leadership.

We consider these allegations to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the American people. These irresponsible insinuations are clearly intended to ratchet up tensions around Syria's economic and financial situation, and to derail the recently launched peace process at any cost.