Russia’s state-owned Sberbank announced a first-quarter net profit of $4.32 billion, an 11.3% increase over the same period last year, Reuters reported on April 26. Despite being under Western sanctions, Russia’s banking industry is once again thriving. Sberbank reported a record annual profit of $16.3 billion in 2023, a more than five-fold increase in 2022. “We are observing strong growth for the start of the year in retail clients’ funds, which forms a solid base for the development of the business in the future,” CEO German Gref said in a statement reported by Reuters. The bank announced on…