Russia’s largest bank Sberbank said Wednesday that it was launching operations on the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and would open offices there this year. A number of top Russian companies and banks have long feared establishing operations in Crimea for fear of Western sanctions. Sberbank made the announcement as world elites gathered for the World Economic Forum in Davos, with Russians absent amid Moscow’s assault against Ukraine. “Sberbank has put together a team and is starting to work on the Crimean peninsula,” said the lender, which was hit with Western sanctions over the assault in Ukraine. “Gradually, over the course of 2023, the bank’s offices will be opened,” it said. The first ATMs have already been installed, and the first offices will open in the peninsula’s large cities, including the port city of Sevastopol in the first six months of this year, the statement added. The Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said residents had been waiting for the bank’s arrival “for a long time.”