Russia has said that it did not receive any requests from sovereign wealth fund from Qatar to purchase shares in state-controlled bank VTB, accounting to Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.

Shuvalov was quoted saying that there were no requests sent to the government in response to a report in a UK newspaper "The Daily Telegraph" last week stating that the Qataris may be issued by VTB with $1.5 billion US dollar new equity and 1.5 billion US dollar mandatory convertible bonds in a proposed deal.

Reportedly, shares at VTB declined at 3.5 % which reflected a 1.3% lower benchmark MICEX share index. The bank has been planning to issue new shares that could reach at least 10% of its equity in the hope of continuing active business operations such as lending through strong capital base.

Meanwhile, Sergei Ignatyev, Russia's central bank chairman, already emphasized uninterested in the proposed deal from VTB despite his claim that VTB will benefit from an additional share issue