Despite reeling from billions of dollars of losses in the US sub-prime mortgage markets, Citi is looking to expand its franchise in the high-growth Russian banking market. Bill Mills, chairman of Citi markets and banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, recently announced that the US bank would open new offices in Kazan, Perm, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Omsk and Novosibirsk in 2008-09. Since 2002, the bank has opened more than 60 offices in Russia, including outlets in Moscow, Nizhni Novgorod, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.