It seems that Russian acquisitiveness had been manifesting itself in less sovereignty-curtailing, military-dolphin-training ways until recently.

Which country do you think has been responsible for the most bank deals in recent years? Here’s a clue: it just annexed Crimea.

There were three bank mergers or acquisitions that involved a Russian lender in the first three months of this year, 11 last year and – all in all – Russia accounts for a full quarter of all domestic and cross-border bank deals by volume announced in Europe since 2009.

Oh, and guess which country has been the third most active for banking M&A in that time? That’s right – Ukraine.

From the Dept. of Irony: Russian Banks lead Europe in takeovers [FN The Tally blog]