Russian Agricultural Bank files lawsuit against JP Morgan

Moscow: State-owned Russian Agricultural Bank has filed a lawsuit against JP Morgan in a Moscow court, court files showed on Tuesday.

The document gave no information on the nature of the claim. JP Morgan declined to comment. Russian Agricultural Bank, Rosselkhozbank, did not immediately reply. The court is yet to start processing the lawsuit filed on Nov. 20.

Russian Agricultural Bank, the main financial intermediary for Russian food and fertiliser exports, has been hit by Western sanctions and disconnected from the SWIFT international payment system.

While trying to salvage a deal that allowed grains to be safely exported from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, the United Nations earlier this year arranged for JP Morgan to operate a special payments link with the Russian bank. However, the arrangement stopped working in August in the weeks after the grain deal finally collapsed.

Russian banks have also filed dozens of lawsuits against Western financial intermediaries over funds frozen due to sanctions.