A lot of work conducted by Sberbank CIB is related to education, charity, and private equity funds, said well-known Russian businessman of Armenian descent Ruben Vardanian in an interview with Novaya Gazeta, commenting on Russian Sberbank CIB plans.

“These all are projects of international level. I generally successfully establish good communication between people of different generations, nationalities and views. We still have projects in the framework of Sberbank that we are discussing with German Gref,” he said.

Vardanyan added, he also has a lot to do in his first homeland, Armenia. Thus, unlike Russia, which gives a lot of possibilities and where the effect of the efforts can be achieved in a decade, the small size of Armenia allows seeing the results of the efforts very fast.

“Take, for example, the project of reconstruction of [Armenian] Tatev monastery, in the framework of which there will be created a tourist, religious, cultural, and historical complex. In 2010, we already completed the construction of ‘Wings of Tatev’ ropeway,” he said.

Vardanyan said that since the opening of ropeway the number of tourists visiting the monastery has grown tenfold. Last year, in particular, the ropeway served about a hundred thousand people, while in the nearest city in the past two years, 10 new hotels were opened.

“We expect to complete the project by 2017, when there will be 1111-th anniversary of Tatev,” he said.

Ruben Vardanian is the co-Head at Sberbank CIB, Head of the SKOLKOVO business school’s Brand and Fundraising Committee. He has worked at Troika Dialog since it was founded and has been the CEO since 1992.