Sovcombank russia

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</div><div>=</div><div>Former Sen. David Vitter, now a lobbyist, forced to drop Russian bank as client after sanctionsBY TYLER BRIDGES | STAFF WRITER MAR 3, 2022 - 3:05 PM CommentsU.S. Sen. David Vitter reflects on his time serving in the Senate during his last speech from the floor on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. C-SPAN image. ]Tyler BridgesSTAFF WRITERAuthor twitterAuthor emailThe Biden administration’s decision to impose sanctions on Russia has hit former U.S. Sen. David Vitter directly in the pocketbook.The sanctions last week cost Vitter the Russian bank Sovcombank as one of his clients at Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying outfit in Washington, D.C. that has employed him since he left the Senate in 2017.“Mercury terminated our engagement with Sovcombank in compliance with U.S. sanctions,” John Gallagher, a company spokesman, said in an email.He declined to make Vitter available for an interview.Vitter had begun working for Sovcombank only the month before to provide “government relations consulting and strategy, including outreach to U.S. government officials,” according to a form he filed with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.Sovcombank was paying Mercury $90,000 per month under a contract filed with the Justice Department. Vitter’s share of that was not disclosed.The U.S. Treasury Department included Sovcombank on its list of financial institutions subject to the sanctions imposed on Feb. 24. In all, the department’s actions targeted “nearly 80% of all banking assets in Russia and will have a deep and long-lasting effect on the Russian economy and financial system.”Sovcombank “is the third largest privately owned financial institution in Russia by total assets, and Russia’s ninth largest bank overall,” according to Treasury.On Feb. 8, Vitter cited Sovcombank’s “deep ties to US and western institutions” in arguing against including the bank on a U.S. sanctions list, according to a filing with the Justice Department. “Many leading US and EU financial institutions that have decided to leave the Russian market in the last several years have entrusted their clients and employees to Sovcombank,” he said.Stephanie Grace: Once a reformer, David Vitter's now lobbying for Russian oligarchAfter losing Sovcombank, Vitter still represents the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Zimbabwe; Hikvision USA, which bills itself as the world’s largest manufacturer of video surveillance products and is a subsidiary of a Chinese company; and the Government of National Unity of Libya, which has the backing of the United Nations.Vitter previously represented a company owned by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch.Vitter didn't run for a third term in the U.S. Senate in 2016, a year after losing the governor's race to John Bel Edwards.=</div><div>=</div>