Vnesheconombank

VEB.RF, or simply VEB (), is a Russian state development corporation and investment company. It was the Russian successor entity of the Foreign Trade Bank of the USSR, renamed Vnesheconombank (VEB) in 1988 and dismantled in 1991. VEB was reorganized in 2007 as a development institute and rebranded as VEB.RF in 2018. It has financed more than 300 projects.

==History== ===Initial legacy of the Soviet Vnesheconombank=== In 1988, the Foreign Trade Bank of the USSR was renamed Vnesheconombank of the USSR ("Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of the USSR"). With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the operations of the Soviet Vnesheconombank (VEB) outside of the RSFSR were nationalized by the respective post-Soviet States. On 17 December 1991, VEB accounts in Russia were frozen because of lack of funds. Approximately, for the next seven years, the Kremlin's obshchak («общак») or black cash was stored in the vaults of VEB. According to former head of Central Bank of Russia Viktor Gerashchenko, the 1992 decree by the Supreme Soviet established VEB as a "kind of agency for the repayment of the national debt of the USSR": "Vnesheconombank does not have a central banking license. It does not need it, since it does not conduct any commercial operations." He also added: "Due to the lack of a license, this is the only Russian bank that the Central Bank does not check – it does not have the right."