Russia Considering Introducing Islamic Banking to Circumvent Western Sanctions

From EuroMaidan Press:

Facing ever greater difficulty in raising money in the West because of sanctions and calls by its own growing Muslim population for such a step, Russian banks are now considering the introduction of Islamic banking in order to gain access to credit markets in the Muslim world.

Bekhnam Gurban-zade, an advisor to the head of Sberbank, tells Novyye izvestiya that his bank is preparing a road map for the introduction of Islamic banking in Russia and the Duma is working on legislation which would allow banking on the principles of shariat law which bans interest but allow banks to become co-investors in projects.

Some Muslim areas in the Russian Federation have been pushing this idea for the last seven years, but now is the first time that it appears there is support in Moscow for the idea, the paper says, although there are concerns about how such a system would work in parallel with the existing mercantilist model....MORE

About the Source
Paul A. Goble 

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. He has served as director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn, and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. Earlier he has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.