MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the illegal confiscation of the assets of a major Russian bank by Ukrainian authorities, this according to documents from the Office of the Prosecutor General, official spokesman of the Office Andrey Ivanov told reporters.

"The Russian Office of the General Prosecutor has checked into the facts about the illegal seizure of assets of a systemic Russian bank by Ukrainian authorities as well as the obstruction of financial operations of its subsidiary credit institution in Ukraine," Ivanov said.

"From the facts we have gathered, it is possible to ascertain that high-ranking officials from the Kiev regime in the form of senior political leaders of the country, in an effort to inflict harm to the interests of the Russian Federation, the Russian bank and Ukrainian nationals who patronize the bank, for a long time, using their legislative capabilities, restricted the activities of the Russian bank and its subsidiary institution on the territory of the country," the spokesman informed.

The end result of disregarding the interests of its citizens, who were clients of the bank, as well as the international obligations of the country was "the expropriation of assets of the credit institution, actually supporting the transfer of all assets of the subsidiary institution of the Russian bank into the hands of Ukrainian oligarchs," Ivanov noted. "As a result of the willful and illegitimate actions of the Kiev regime, damage worth more than $1 bln was inflicted on the Russian bank and its clients," he stressed.

Ivanov did not mention the bank but according to TASS data, this refers to the assets of Sberbank.