The US is quietly asking major banks like JPMorgan and Citi to keep doing business with some Russian firms, report says

• US officials asked major banks to maintain ties with Russian companies, Bloomberg reported
• Its report said banks were asked to keep dealing with firms that are partly exempt from sanctions.

US officials are quietly asking major banks to keep doing business with some Russian firms, despite Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.

Treasury and State Department officials are urging firms including JPMorgan and Citigroup to keep providing services to some Russian companies that are partly exempt from sanctions on the Russia economy, per the report.

The motive was said to be reducing the prospect of a global economic crisis.

The Russian firms included state-run gas giant Gazprom and fertilizer producer Uralkali PJSC, sources told Bloomberg.

Officials are requesting that the banks continue providing basic services to the firms, like US dollar settlement, payment transfers, and trade finance offerings, according to Bloomberg.

Representatives for the Treasury Department and the State Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

In a congressional hearing on September 21, CEOs of major US banks came under scrutiny for their dealings in Russia.

At the hearing, when asked by members of Congress whether his bank would cut ties with Russian companies, JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon responded: "We are following the instructions of the American government as they asked us to do it," Bloomberg reported.

JPMorgan didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider. Citigroup declined to comment.

"Congress needs to understand this — the US government has not imposed a comprehensive embargo with Russia, there's still pockets of business that are allowed," said Nnedinma Ifudu Nweke, an attorney who specializes in economic sanctions and trade embargoes, in an exchange with Bloomberg.

The officials "will continue to have meetings to educate banks on those pockets of allowable transactions," Nweke said.

Leaders of major Western banks have been condemned by Ukrainian officials, who said in July that they would pursue war-crimes charges against them.

"There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, against Ukrainians," Oleg Ustenko, an economic advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told CNBC, adding that they would pass on information to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"In our logic, everybody who is financing these war criminals who are doing these terrible things in Ukraine are also committing war crimes," he added.

The ICC has the power to prosecute people but not entities.