MOSCOW: Russia's second-largest bank VTB said on Thursday its first-half net profit fell 82 percent from a year ago, hit by a slowdown in the Russian economy and political tensions linked to the Ukraine crisis.

State-controlled VTB said in a statement that net profit was 5 billion roubles ($138 million) versus 27.6 billion roubles a year ago.

Bad loan provisions rose to 92.8 billion roubles from 50.7 billion in the same period last year, hurting performance.

Its return on equity slumped to 1.1 percent compared to 6.9 percent for the first half of 2013.