said April 4 thatit completed the purchase of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc's Russian unit, havingobtained the approval of the Russian central bank.

Theplan is to complete the merging of the acquired unit with Expobank structuresby the end of 2016.

Thesale of Royal Bank of ScotlandRussia, announced in late 2015, is in line with RBS Group's plans to withdrawfrom certain markets in order to focus on business development in the U.K.,Expobank noted.