VEB VTB bank

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Vneshtorgbank (VTB</font></span></p><p><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://xn--90ab5f.xn--p1ai/en/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Vnesheconombank</a>, VEB</font></b></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">nyt
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wASHINGTON —<b>&nbsp;The team led by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, failed to do everything it could to determine what happened in the 2016 election, shying away from steps like subpoenaing President Trump and scrutinizing his finances out of fear he would fire them,</b>&nbsp;one of Mr. Mueller’s top lieutenants argued in the first insider account of the inquiry.</font></div><div><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Had we used all available tools to uncover the truth, undeterred by the onslaught of the president’s unique powers to undermine our efforts?” wrote the former prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, in a new book, adding, “I know the hard answer to that simple question: We could have done more.”</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The team took elaborate steps to protect its files of evidence from the risk that the Justice Department might destroy them if Mr. Trump fired them</b>&nbsp;and worked to keep reporters and the public from learning what they were up to, Mr. Weissmann wrote in “Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation,” which Random House will publish next week.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>While he speaks reverently of Mr. Mueller, he also says his boss’s diffidence made him ill-suited for aspects of shepherding the politically charged investigation. He saw Mr. Mueller and his deputy, Aaron M. Zebley, as overly cautious.</b></font></p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column" /></div><div class="css-8atqhb"><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Weissmann also defended against accusations by the president and his allies that he and other investigators were politically biased “angry Democrats”; Mr. Weissmann said his personal views had no bearing on the crimes that Russian operatives and Trump aides committed.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And he elevates particular details — for example, emphasizing that the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/us/politics/michael-cohen-shell-company-payments.html" title="">same business account</a>&nbsp;that sent hush payments to an adult film star who alleged an extramarital affair with Mr. Trump had also received “payments linked to a Russian oligarch.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">” The president has denied the affair; his former lawyer Michael D. Cohen controlled the account. Mr. Mueller transferred the Cohen matter to prosecutors in New Yor</span>k.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">Previously a mafia and Enron prosecutor and then a lawyer at the F.B.I. for Mr. Mueller, who was the bureau’s director for 12 years, Mr. Weissmann ran one of three major units for the special counsel’s office. His “Team M” prosecuted Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort for numerous financial crimes. The goal was to flip him and learn whatever he knew about any Trump campaign links to Russia.</span></p><div class="css-16l7vy9" data-testid="inline-message" aria-live="polite"><div class="css-1od6ynp"><div class="css-16858bh"><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Mr. Manafort had worked for pro-Russian interests in Ukraine, and the investigation uncovered ties by his business partner<b>, Konstantin V. Kilimnik</b>, to Russian intelligence. The book builds toward investigators’ discovery that Mr. Manafort had shared internal campaign polling data with Mr. Kilimnik, who flew to the United States to meet with Mr. Manafort during the campaign, asking whether Mr. Trump would permit a peace plan for Russia to essentially take over all of eastern Ukraine.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">But while admitting this much, Mr. Manafort — seeing the dangle of a potential pardon from Mr. Trump — refused to cooperate further. Investigators did not obtain any final puzzle pieces and lacked the evidence to charge anyone in the campaign with a criminal conspiracy involving Russia’s covert electoral assistance.</font></p></div></div><div class="css-8atqhb"><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“It would seem to require significant audacity — or else, leverage — for another nation to even put such a request before a presidential candidate,” Mr. Weissmann wrote of Mr. Kilimnik’s request. “This made what we didn’t know, and still don’t know to this day, monumentally disconcerting: Namely, why would Trump ever agree to this? Why would Trump ever agree to this Russian proposal if the candidate were not getting something from Russia in return?”</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Mr. Weissmann explained the significance of Mr. Manafort’s interactions with Mr. Kilimnik — also a major focus of&nbsp;<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/us/politics/senate-intelligence-russian-interference-report.html" title="">a recent bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report</a>, which explicitly labeled Mr. Kilimnik a Russian intelligence agent — more clearly than the Mueller report did.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Mueller had strictly forbidden leaks, and the special counsel team took extraordinary care to protect the high-profile, high-stakes investigation, Mr. Weissmann wrote. They kept window blind slats tilted at an angle to keep out prying eyes, shutting out natural light. They concocted an “almost comically elaborate and surreal” plan to sneak in “through the many hidden arteries of the courthouse” to obtain a grand jury indictment without tipping off reporters.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And worried about the possibility that Mr. Trump would fire them and the Justice Department would then seal off or destroy their evidence, the Mueller team members packed their numerous applications to judges for search warrants with extensive, up-to-date details about their investigation — ensuring they backed up their work beyond the reach of the executive branch.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ty Cobb, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, also privately promised to be a “canary in the coal mine” and provide a heads up if Mr. Trump was going to fire the special counsel team, according to Mr. Weissmann. In an email, Mr. Cobb wrote that he “never made the commitment” described by Mr. Weissmann.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The investigation played out against the backdrop of regular vilification of the Mueller team by Mr. Trump and his allies like Fox News’s Sean Hannity — who turned out to be in regular contact with Mr. Manafort cooking up a “smear campaign” over text messages. Mr. Weissmann, a major target, wrote that such “ad hominem” insinuations of bias appealed to emotion rather than reason.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I am a registered Democrat,” he wrote. “Does this make Paul&nbsp;<b>Manafort</b>&nbsp;or any of the other 32 people our office charged any less guilty? Did Russia not attack our democracy and disrupt our election with its self-described online information warfare operation? Which facts that we alleged in our various indictments — and to which many of those we indicted, including Manafort, would plead guilty — did our attackers believe were invented as a result of our alleged bias as ‘angry Democrats?’”</font></p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column" /></div><div class="css-8atqhb"><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Trump’s allies have recently&nbsp;<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcenany-calls-out-press-mueller-phone-wiping" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank">pointed with alarm</a>&nbsp;to documents showing that cellphones issued to Mr. Mueller’s team were erased during the investigation; Mr. Weissmann twice entered an incorrect passcode too often, triggering a security measure that erased his phone. In an interview, he portrayed the concerns as a “tempest in a teapot” and said his understanding was that all emails and other such data from phones were backed up. He called on the Justice Department to release information about the special counsel’s data backup system.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Weissmann also wrote that he is not “anti-Trump” but rather “pro the rule of law.” Still, the distinction is less than clear in a book that also portrays Mr. Trump as a liar and a dangerous demagogue trying “to peel the world around him away from the rule of law — away from reason itself — and mold it to accommodate his desire for unchecked power.”</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Weissmann was equally scathing about Attorney General William P. Barr, calling him an enabler and likening&nbsp;<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/us/politics/mueller-report-barr-judge-walton.html" title="">his misleading letter</a>&nbsp;last spring&nbsp;<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/us/politics/mueller-report-william-barr-excerpts.html" title="">about the then-still-secret Mueller report</a>&nbsp;as a betrayal and “gut punch.”</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Weissmann also criticized colleagues, portraying the special counsel team as divided between aggressive investigators like him, the F.B.I. special agent Omer Meisel and the prosecutor Jeannie Rhee — who headed “Team R,” which investigated Russian issues other than those centered on Manafort — and far more risk-averse law enforcement officials like Mr. Zebley who pulled punches.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In one episode in 2017, the Mueller team issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank for information about Mr. Manafort’s income in Ukraine. Deutsche Bank had also lent large sums to the Trump Organization, and the White House somehow found out about the still-secret subpoenas — though not their focus. The White House demanded to know what investigators were doing, and Mr. Mueller authorized Mr. Zebley to tell the White House that they had not been seeking Mr. Trump’s financial information.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“At that point, any financial investigation of Trump was put on hold,” Mr. Weissmann writes. “That is, we backed down — the issue was simply too incendiary; the risk, too severe.”</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The book provides many other examples of concessions large and small. Investigators did not try to question Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka — who had spoken in the lobby to a delegation of Russians who came to Trump Tower in June 2016 to meet with campaign leaders who had been promised that they were offering dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.</font></p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column" /></div><div class="css-8atqhb"><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They “feared that hauling her in for an interview would play badly to the already antagonistic right-wing press —&nbsp;<em class="css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0">look how they’re roughing up the president’s daughter&nbsp;</em>— and risk enraging Trump, provoking him to shut down the special counsel’s office once and for all,” he wrote.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Similarly, they did not subpoena the Trump Organization for emails about its efforts to develop a Trump-branded building in Moscow, which were active deep into the 2016 campaign.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And they did not immunize Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., a step that would have prevented him from being able to invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying about matters like the Trump Tower meeting. Bound by grand-jury secrecy rules, Mr. Weissmann did not come out and say whether Donald Trump Jr. was threatened with or actually issued a subpoena and used his right against self-incrimination to repel it.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Weissmann laid much of the blame for what he saw as a pattern of timidity on Mr. Zebley, portraying him as a primary decision maker. “Repeatedly during our 22 months in operation, we would reach some critical juncture in our investigation only to have Aaron say that we could not take a particular action because it risked aggravating the president beyond some undefined breaking point.”</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Weissmann acknowledged, but did not clearly address, concerns that the aging Mr. Mueller had lost a step, both declaring that he was capable of making the tough decisions despite “speculative concerns” about his health but also describing him in one scene as looking drained and worn down by his years of grueling public service.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Mr. Zebley obtained Mr. Mueller’s sanction for many of his cautious directives, in one striking episode, Mr. Zebley appeared in Mr. Weissmann’s telling to have unilaterally agreed — without Mr. Mueller’s knowledge — to a request by the office of the deputy attorney general overseeing them, Rod J. Rosenstein, not to coordinate with state prosecutors “as it would undermine the president’s pardon power.”</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two other former officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disputed the account. Mr. Rosenstein did not decline any request to share information with state prosecutors, a person familiar with his thinking wrote in an email.</font></p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column" /></div><div class="css-8atqhb"><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another person familiar with how the special counsel’s office interacted with Mr. Rosenstein’s office denied that there had been any agreement about sharing evidence with or withholding it from state prosecutors, and said Mr. Zebley had consulted with Mr. Mueller on every material decision.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the failure to subpoena Mr. Trump, Mr. Mueller was determined to avoid “any public disagreements” with Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Weissmann wrote. Because the special counsel regulations required telling Congress about any instance in which Mr. Rosenstein overruled him, Mr. Mueller never actually proposed subpoenaing Mr. Trump, instead coyly asking what Mr. Rosenstein’s reaction would be. Mr. Rosenstein just kept demurring.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the end, Mr. Weissmann said in an interview, the caution was more justified early on to avoid provoking Mr. Trump into firing them before they could get going. But he and Ms. Rhee, among others, believed the office should have been willing to be more aggressive later on, after they had learned much of what Russia had done and had already used indictments to drag it into public view.</font></p><p class="css-158dogj evys1bk0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We would have subpoenaed the president after he refused our accommodations, even if that risked us being fired,” he wrote. “It just didn’t sit right. We were left feeling like we had let down the American public, who were counting on us to give it our all.”</font></p></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div><b>Firm Tied to Russian Oligarch Made Payments to&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Michael Cohen</span></b></div><div>Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s lawyer and fixer. His shell company received payments from a firm linked to a Russian oligarch, as well as corporations with business before the Trump administration.</div><div>
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</div><div>By Mike McIntire, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg</div><div>
</div><div>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<b>May 8, 2018</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before the Trump administration, according to documents and interviews.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Financial records reviewed by The New York Times show that Mr.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Cohen,&nbsp;</span>President Trump’s personal lawyer and longtime fixer, used the shell company, Essential Consultants L.L.C., for an array of business activities that went far beyond what was publicly known. Transactions adding up to at least $4.4 million flowed through Essential Consultants starting shortly before Mr. Trump was elected president and continuing to this January, the records show.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Among the previously unreported transactions were payments last year of about $500,000 from Columbus Nova, an investment firm in New York whose biggest client is a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch. A lawyer for Columbus Nova, in a statement on Tuesday, described the money as a consulting fee that had nothing to do with Mr. Vekselberg.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Other transactions described in the financial records include hundreds of thousands of dollars Mr. Cohen received from Fortune 500 companies with business before the Trump administration, as well as smaller amounts he paid for luxury expenses like a Mercedes-Benz and private club dues.</div><div>
</div><div><b>References to the transactions first appeared in a document posted to Twitter on Tuesday by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star who was paid $130,000 by Essential Consultants to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Mr. Trump.</b>&nbsp;The lawyer’s seven-page document, titled “Preliminary Report of Findings,” does not explain the source of his information but describes in detail dates, dollar amounts and parties involved in various dealings by Mr. Cohen and his company.&nbsp;<b>Most of the transactions involved two banks: First Republic Bank and City National Bank.</b></div><div>
</div><div><b>The Times’s review of financial records confirmed much of what was in Mr. Avenatti’s report. In addition, a review of documents and interviews shed additional light on Mr. Cohen’s dealings with the company connected to Mr. Vekselberg, who was stopped and questioned at an airport earlier this year by investigators for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.</b></div><div>
</div><div>[ImageViktor Vekselberg, left, the Russian oligarch, with Marat Khusnullin, deputy mayor of Moscow, before the inauguration ceremony of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia this week.]</div><div>
</div><div>Taken together, The Times’s findings and Mr. Avenatti’s report offer the most detailed picture yet on Mr. Cohen’s business dealings and financial entanglements in the run-up to the election and its aftermath. F<b>ederal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating Mr. Cohen for possible bank fraud and election-law violations, among other matters, according to people briefed on the investigation. Stephen Ryan, a lawyer representing Mr. Cohen, declined to comment.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, is suing Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump to break her nondisclosure agreement related to the $130,000.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It is unclear whether that or any of the other transactions were improper, but Mr. Avenatti has asserted that Mr. Cohen’s use of<b>&nbsp;Essential Consultants&nbsp;</b>potentially violated banking laws. The financial records indicate that at least some of the money that passed through Essential Consultants was from sources and in amounts that were inconsistent with the company’s stated purpose.</span></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Mr. Cohen also used the company to collect $250,000 after arranging payments in 2017 and 2018 by a major Republican donor, Elliott Broidy, to a former Playboy model he allegedly impregnated, according to news reports last month.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Among the other payments to Mr. Cohen’s company described in the financial records were four for $99,980 each between October and January by Novartis Investments S.A.R.L., a subsidiary of&nbsp;<b>Novartis,</b>&nbsp;the multinational pharmaceutical giant based in Switzerland.&nbsp;<b>Novartis — whose chief executive was among 15 business leaders invited to dinner with Mr. Trump at the World Economic Forum in January — spent more than $10 million on lobbying in Washington last year and frequently seeks approvals from federal drug regulators</b>. Novartis said in a statement that its agreement with Essential Consultants had expired.</span></div><div>
</div><div>In addition,<b>&nbsp;Korea Aerospace Industries&nbsp;</b>paid Mr. Cohen’s company $150,000 last November, according to the records. The company, an aircraft manufacturer, has teamed with the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin in competing for a multibillion-dollar contract to provide trainer jets for the United States Air Force that is expected to be awarded this year. A representative for Korea Aerospace declined to comment.</div><div>
</div><div><b>How Michael Cohen Is Connected to a Russian Oligarch</b></div><div>
</div><div>Mr. Cohen, President Trump’s lawyer and longtime fixer, met with a Russian oligarch at Trump Tower to discuss Russia and was later paid by a company connected to him.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>AT&T&nbsp;</b>made four payments totaling $200,000 between October 2017 and January 2018, according to the documents. AT&T, whose proposed merger with Time Warner is pending before the Justice Department, issued a statement on Tuesday evening confirming that it made payments to Mr. Cohen’s firm.</span></div><div>
</div><div>“Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration,” the statement said. “They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The payments by Columbus Nova occurred between January and August of last year.<b>&nbsp;Andrew Intrater, the company’s American chief executive and Mr. Vekselberg’s cousin, donated $250,000 to Mr. Trump’s inauguration</b>, campaign finance records show. He and Mr. Vekselberg attended the event together and met with Mr. Cohen there, according to a person briefed on the matter. Columbus Nova retained him as a consultant soon afterward.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The consulting deal was worth $1 million and was supposed to last for a year, according to documents reviewed by The Times. But Columbus Nova decided to end the agreement midway through after it yielded a few investment ideas but no actual deals.</div><div>
</div><div>A person close to Mr. Intrater said that the executive had no idea Essential Consultants was used for the separate payment to Ms. Clifford, and that he hired a number of other consultants at the time for similar prices.</div><div>
</div><div>“Columbus Nova is an investment management company solely owned and controlled by Americans,” said Richard Owens, a lawyer for Mr. Intrater and Columbus Nova, adding that Mr. Vekselberg has never owned the firm. “After the inauguration, the firm hired Michael Cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures.</div><div>
</div><div>“Reports today that Viktor Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Michael Cohen are false. The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved in or provided any funding for Columbus Nova’s engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue,” Mr. Owens said. “<b>Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else outside of Columbus Nova was involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement.”</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A lawyer for Mr. Vekselberg did not respond to a request for comment.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>In addition to questioning Mr. Vekselberg, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have also interviewed Mr. Intrater, though there is no indication that either man is suspected of wrongdoing, T</b>he Times reported last week.</div><div>
</div><div>The person close to Mr. Intrater said that he was encouraged to attend the inauguration by an American friend, unrelated to Mr. Cohen, and that he had wanted to use the trip as an opportunity to meet with business associates in Washington.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Mr. Vekselberg has invested in Columbus Nova’s private equity funds through his sprawling Russian-based conglomerate, the Renova Group, which operates in the energy sector and elsewhere. Mr. Vekselberg was one of seven Kremlin-linked oligarchs hit with sanctions in April by the Trump administration, which also imposed the penalties on the Renova Group.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Renova has had a financial relationship with<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> VTB, one of the largest state-owned banks in Russia,</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;</span>according to documents that were part of the “Panama Papers” leak of files from an offshore law firm.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> The documents show that Mr. Vekselberg’s companies received at least $350 million in loans or investments from VTB and a subsidiary, VTB Capital</span>. The current state of the debt is unclear, though one document suggests it was discharged in 2010.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Mr. Cohen created Essential Consultants in&nbsp;<b>Delaware</b>&nbsp;less than two weeks before he completed his deal with Ms. Clifford, who is now contesting her contract with Mr. Cohen as invalid.</span>&nbsp;Mr. Cohen initially said he paid her out of his own pocket by way of a home equity line of credit.</div><div>
</div><div><b>But last week, former Mayor Rudolph W.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Giuliani&nbsp;</span>of New York said that Mr. Trump had reimbursed Mr. Cohen through several $35,000 monthly transactions that amounted to more than $400,000 —<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;covering the payment to Ms. Clifford and, he said, other “incidental expenses.”</span></b></div><div>
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</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><a href="https://publicintegrity.org/politics/how-a-sanctioned-russian-bank-wooed-washington/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://publicintegrity.org/politics/how-a-sanctioned-russian-bank-wooed-washington/</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...V<span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">TB said its work with lobbyists is “structured in a completely transparent way.” A spokeswoman for Sidley Austin said omitting the meetings was inadvertent and “promptly corrected when discovered.”</span></font></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Sidley Austin’s advocacy team includes a former Democratic congressman from Virginia, Rick Boucher. Also on VTB’s payroll: lobbyist Mike Manatos of Manatos & Manatos, who&nbsp;</span><a href="http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/147/201610279036941147/201610279036941147.pdf" style="letter-spacing: 0.3px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" border="border" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant="font-variant" font-weight="font-weight" font-stretch="font-stretch" line-height="line-height" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" background-image="background-image" linear-gradient="linear-gradient" rgb="rgb" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-size="background-size" background-position="background-position" center="center" transition="transition" all="all" s="s" linear="linear">raised</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">&nbsp;tens of thousands of dollars for the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VTB has so far paid Sidley Austin and lobbying firm Manatos & Manatos a combined $1.2 million since 2015 for lobbying on sanctions, according to disclosures filed with the Department of Justice. The U.S. Treasury Department nevertheless&nbsp;<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm0338" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(243, 93, 38), rgb(243, 93, 38)), linear-gradient(rgb(2, 118, 232), rgb(2, 118, 232) 98%); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 0px 2px, 100% 2px; background-position: 0px 100%, 100% center; transition: all 0.2s linear 0s;">announced</a>&nbsp;new sanctions against Kostin himself in April.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VTB’s effort — a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/3731-Exhibit-AB-20151023-23.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(243, 93, 38), rgb(243, 93, 38)), linear-gradient(rgb(2, 118, 232), rgb(2, 118, 232) 98%); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 0px 2px, 100% 2px; background-position: 0px 100%, 100% center; transition: all 0.2s linear 0s;">reaction</a>&nbsp;to economic sanctions imposed on the bank by U.S. officials — coincided with escalating scrutiny of Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election. The election interference in part&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/chuck-grassley-defends-his-response-to-russian-interference-in-2016-election" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(243, 93, 38), rgb(243, 93, 38)), linear-gradient(rgb(2, 118, 232), rgb(2, 118, 232) 98%); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 0px 2px, 100% 2px; background-position: 0px 100%, 100% center; transition: all 0.2s linear 0s;">prompted</a>&nbsp;some members of Congress to propose legislation last&nbsp;<a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/sen-grassley-rep-johnson-introduce-bill-shine-light-foreign-influences" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(243, 93, 38), rgb(243, 93, 38)), linear-gradient(rgb(2, 118, 232), rgb(2, 118, 232) 98%); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 0px 2px, 100% 2px; background-position: 0px 100%, 100% center; transition: all 0.2s linear 0s;">Halloween</a>&nbsp;to overhaul FARA....</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">220</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">primary on deutsche bank book&nbsp;</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/business/vnesheconombank-veb-bank-russia-trump-kushner.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.nytimes.com/<b>2017</b>/06/04/business/vnesheconombank-veb-bank-russia-trump-kushner.html</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Bank at Center of U.S. Inquiry Projects Russian ‘Soft Power’</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TRANSCRIPT</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">0:00/2:17</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jared Kushner’s Meeting With a Russian Banker</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jared Kushner is now under congressional and F.B.I. scrutiny after his meeting with a close ally of Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Here’s how the Russian banker Sergey N. Gorkov could benefit from meeting President Trump’s senior adviser.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They met for a half-hour in December: Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser and Sergey Gorkov, a prominent Russian banker and close associate of Vladimir Putin. NATPOP: Vladimir V. Putin meeting with Gorkov [Rossiya 24. February 2017]: How is it going at the bank? - All Normal Who is this Russian banker and why is his meeting with Kushner now under Congressional and FBI’s scrutiny? TITLE: When a Putin’s Ally Meets Trump’s Advisor Sergey Gorkov is the chief of Vnesheconombank, the state-owned Russian bank that was deeply intertwined with Russian intelligence and that was hit with sanctions after the annexation of Crimea. SOT Rossiya 24, Dec 29 - Gorkov: “We are preparing to work under sanctions, pay our debt.” The White House said the meeting between the men was just a routine diplomatic encounter. But Gorkov has no known diplomatic role for Putin. The White House has also said there were no discussions of sanctions against Vneshekonombank during the Kushner-Gorkov meeting. But removing sanctions would greatly expand the ability of Gorkov’s bank to do business in the United States, and the issue was clearly on his mind. In this interview on Russian TV right around the time of the meeting, Gorkov had been expressing optimism that the sanctions would be lifted. SOT: Gorkov Rossiya 24, Dec 29: “Let’s hope hope that the situation with sanctions will change for the better next year.” Interviewer: “” That’s right, after the new administration takes over.” Gorkov: “Yes, that’s possible Putin personally appointed Gorkov to lead Vnesheconombank in 2016. Experts say it was in part because of his ties to Russia’s security services - he studied law at the university known to train spies. Here’s Gorkov reporting on Vneshekonombank successes to the Russian president. SOT Vladimir V. Putin [Moscow, Aug. 2016 - Channel One News on Youtube]: It seems that as a new head of the bank, you’re overcoming the challenges you encountered. Three months after the meeting with Kushner, Gorkov said it had been part of his bank strategy to discuss promising trends with influential businesses abroad. What remains unclear, and what investigators are looking into, is what exactly Mr. Kushner and Mr. Gorkov wanted from each other.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jared Kushner is now under congressional and F.B.I. scrutiny after his meeting with a close ally of Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Here’s how the Russian banker Sergey N. Gorkov could benefit from meeting President Trump’s senior adviser.CreditCredit...Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters..</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By Ben Protess, Andrew E. Kramer and Mike McIntire</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">June 4, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It has offices in a sleek Manhattan skyscraper. Its bonds are accessible to millions of American investors. And it holds ties to some of New York’s biggest banks.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Despite this presence on Wall Street, detailed in previously unreported financial records, Vnesheconombank, or VEB, is no normal bank. It is wholly owned by the Russian state. It is intertwined with Russian intelligence. And the Russian prime minister is, by law, the chairman of its supervisory board.</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now VEB is at the center of an international firestorm that threatens the Trump presidency because the bank’s chief — a prominent graduate of Russia’s spy school — met with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, during the presidential transition. That meeting is a focus of a federal counterintelligence investigation about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Three years ago, in response to Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine, the Obama administration imposed sanctions on VEB that have effectively kept it from taking on most new business in the United States. Since then, however, VEB has quietly kept up appearances on Wall Street in the event that sanctions would be lifted, according to interviews with American bankers and former government officials.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That moment appeared to be nearing with Mr. Trump’s victory. And so the bank’s chief, Sergey N. Gorkov, traveled to New York in December for what he described as a “roadshow” promoting the bank that was largely hinged on the prospect of improved diplomatic and business relationships between the United States and Russia.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>During that trip, The New York Times has found, Mr. Gorkov met with bankers at JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and another, unidentified American financial institution.</b> Goldman Sachs bankers also tried to arrange a meeting but ultimately had a scheduling conflict. The meetings, which are not prohibited by sanctions, were confirmed by three people briefed on the discussions but unauthorized to speak publicly about them.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">None of the American banks were new to VEB. Citi and JPMorgan had long, established relationships clearing financial transactions for VEB in the United States, activities not affected by the sanctions. And before the sanctions, securities filings show, Goldman and others had helped the Russian bank issue bonds, activity that was blocked by the sanctions and that VEB was eager to resume.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After a few painful years, continuing Western borrowing had become a pressing priority for Moscow. The Russian Finance Ministry has spent about $10 billion to prop up the bank over the past three years, according to banking analysts.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On that same trip, Mr. Gorkov met with Mr. Kushner. The nature of the meeting, which remains in dispute, followed a session between Mr. Kushner and the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, about opening a communications channel with Russian officials during the presidential transition, according to current and former American officials.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The F.B.I. and congressional investigators are now scrutinizing whether Mr. Kushner may have met with Mr. Gorkov to help establish a direct line to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, or for other reasons not cited by the White House.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The White House and VEB have issued contradictory statements about the purpose of the Gorkov meeting.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The White House has said that Mr. Kislyak requested the meeting and that “Mr. Kushner was acting in his capacity as a transition official.” But VEB said Mr. Gorkov had met with Mr. Kushner, who was still running his family’s real estate company, to discuss business. The statement said VEB’s management had met with “a number of representatives of the largest banks and business circles of the U.S.,” a claim supported by the Times’s reporting about Mr. Gorkov’s meetings with banks in New York.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">VEB has not disclosed specifics of the conversation with Mr. Kushner, which is of keen interest to investigators.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mr. Kushner’s hunt for overseas investors for his company’s financially troubled Manhattan office tower on Fifth Avenue has been documented by The Times. While such an investment would not fit the profile of VEB’s past lending, it would have been possible for Mr. Gorkov to relay such information to other Russian banks. It is not known, however, whether the subject was raised in the meeting.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ImageVnesheconombank, or VEB, has offices on Third Avenue in New York. Sanctions have limited the bank’s United States activities.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Vnesheconombank, or VEB, has offices on Third Avenue in New York. Sanctions have limited the bank’s United States activities.Credit...Sam Hodgson for The New York Times]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The subject of sanctions was also freshly topical in December. The rolling back of sanctions was an essential part of Mr. Gorkov’s strategy in visiting New York, and was central to the health of his bank. The next month, during Mr. Trump’s first week in office, administration officials signaled they were considering lifting the sanctions that stemmed from the conflict in Ukraine.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Separately, Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, had several phone conversations late last year with Mr. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. In one, the two men discussed additional sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in response to the Russian government’s efforts to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The meeting with Mr. Kushner was not VEB’s only connection to Mr. Trump’s campaign or associates.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A banker who pleaded guilty last year to spying for Russia out of VEB’s office in New York was part of an unsuccessful Russian scheme to recruit <b>Carter Page,</b> an American businessman who later became a Trump campaign adviser, as a spy. VEB also obtained shares in a Ukrainian steel smelter when it was sold by a business partner of Mr. Trump’s who built a Trump hotel in Toronto, according to previously undisclosed documents from the vast leak known as the Panama Papers. The VEB involvement in the smelter deal was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These interactions have stirred concerns over whether the bank, which few Americans have heard of despite its ties to Wall Street and big companies like Boeing, has been spreading Russian influence along with its financial footprint.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A representative for the bank would not comment.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>‘This Is Not a Bank’</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>VEB and Mr. Putin are inextricably linked.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The bank stepped up lending after 2008 when Mr. Putin, then prime minister, became chairman of the board. And during the oil boom, VEB was seen as embodying Russia’s new financial might.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Under a 2007 law, VEB’s mandate was to lend to important but underfinanced sectors of the Russian economy, including infrastructure and businesses that help diversify the economy beyond oil dependence.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>There are other government-controlled banks in Russia, Sberbank and VTB, but they are primarily retail banks. VEB serves a very different role, lending mostly to large borrowers, many of them politically connected.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">To that end, VEB over the last decade has lent freely in ways that dovetail with government priorities and make it a tool of Russian soft power. The purse strings opened for two influential groups in particular: oligarchs building Olympic sites in Sochi and companies in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“This is not a bank,” said Karen Vartapetov, a public finance analyst at Standard & Poor’s. “We should rather treat this bank as a government agency. It is used by the government as a tool to invest in politically and socially important but not always financially viable projects.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>VEB’s role as a projector of state influence was on display in 2010 with a deal that potentially affected a Trump hotel in Toronto.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the time, Alex Shnaider, a Russian-Canadian businessman developing the hotel, was looking to sell a steel plant in Ukraine. His Midland Resources Holding Ltd., which owned the Zaporizhstal steel factory, sold at least half its stake to a collection of five offshore companies that received funding from VEB, according to documents in the trove of files from the law firm<b> Mossack Fonseca </b>that were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The documents show that one year after acquiring the Zaporizhstal stake, the five companies — based in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands — transferred it to Russian control.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In each case, the companies’ shares were “charged in favor of” VEB, meaning the bank effectively took ownership of them in exchange for financing the steel plant acquisition.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Court papers in Canada show that Mr. Shnaider’s deal to sell the steel plant coincided with his need to cover cost overruns in the Trump deal. His lawyer initially told The Wall Street Journal last month that about $15 million from the Ukraine sale went into the $500 million Toronto project, but he later backtracked.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Nothing in the Panama Papers linked VEB’s financing to the Trump project, which Mr. Trump did not own. Rather, the deal underscored VEB’s strategy to venture into Ukraine at the behest of the Russian government.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More broadly, the bank’s plan had been to tap capital markets in New York to help finance the Ukraine lending, but the plan collapsed with the imposition of sanctions in 2014.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The bank today, not unlike Mr. Putin’s government, expanded its sway abroad in a way that appears unsustainable. Weighed down by sanctions and the oil price collapse, the Russian economy has slipped to 12th in the world, below South Korea’s, according to a World Bank ranking.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At the time sanctions were imposed, the bank’s total debt ran about $20 billion. It has since been reduced to $17 billion, according to financial disclosures at the end of last year. But the Ukraine lending in particular is affecting the balance sheet, with outstanding Ukraine debt totaling $14.2 billion at the current exchange rate, banking analysts say.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Last week, the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti reported that about 40 percent of VEB’s loans were at risk of default.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mr. Gorkov, who previously worked at the Yukos oil company and was a senior executive at Sberbank, became director of VEB in February 2016, partly with a mandate to find market solutions to the bank’s financial woes.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For Mr. Gorkov, fixing VEB would require a new focus, and that, according to the bank’s statement, became the reason for a meeting with Mr. Kushner.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The two met as Mr. Gorkov traveled to gather ideas for a new strategy for the bank, published a month after the meeting with Mr. Kushner in a document called “Strategy 2021.” It called for shifting some risks directly to the Russian budget, selling assets not considered central to the bank and trying to resume borrowing in places like the United States.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The document suggested that the bank was expecting some relief from sanctions. “The forecasts for the term of the strategy predict certain decrease of geopolitical risks and gradual weakening of the restricted access to global capital markets,” it said.</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Robert Amsterdam, a lawyer who has represented Mr. Gorkov’s former boss at Yukos, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, said it was essential that sanctions be lifted for the VEB turnaround to succeed.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Putin doesn’t have to worry about what the voters think of him,” Mr. Amsterdam said. “Putin has to think about the top 100. And the top 100 are those who are sanctioned.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">American Ties</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Long before VEB became saddled with sanctions, it had deep ties to Washington and Wall Street.</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In 2010, Mr. Gorkov’s predecessor appeared at the<b> U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington to unveil a pact with the Export-Import Bank of the United States,</b> the federal agency that supports American exports. Under the deal, the two institutions agreed “to cooperate in financing U.S. exports to Russia.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The arrangement was followed by two little-noticed deals. In 2013, the Export-Import Bank guaranteed a loan of about $500 million so that, in effect, a VEB subsidiary could acquire a number of Boeing 777 aircraft — planes that VEB then leased to Aeroflot Russian Airlines. A year later, shortly before the sanctions hit, the American agency guaranteed another loan of about $700 million for a similar deal.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Export-Import Bank said, “These transactions all supported the sale of U.S. exports and thus supported American jobs.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Since the sanctions took effect, the spokeswoman said, there have been no new VEB transactions, and deals involving any Russian entities have been placed on “administrative hold.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The sanctions also limited VEB’s relationship with American banks. The sanctions prohibit United States banks and companies from “transacting in, providing financing for or otherwise dealing” in new long-term debt.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For years, issuing debt was a good business for both Wall Street and VEB. Between 2006 and 2013, Goldman, Citi and Morgan Stanley helped the Russian bank issue one bond deal after another, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Now, American banks can work for VEB only in more limited roles.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>JPMorgan, Citi and BNY Mellon, for example, remain registered to clear VEB’s transactions through the United States,</b> clearinghouse records show, though such transactions have waned since the sanctions were imposed. Many major American banks and investment firms also continue to include VEB debt in mutual funds, including those of Fidelity and Pimco, securities filings show.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It would not be out of the ordinary, then, for a VEB official to have brief courtesy meetings with New York bankers about continuing business, though they would not be allowed to discuss new bond deals, said Aaron Wolfson, a partner at Lewis Baach who previously worked at JPMorgan and prosecuted banks for skirting sanctions.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Still, Zachary K. Goldman, a former Treasury Department official who worked on financial sanctions issues, said the banks needed to be cautious.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“Just because limited interactions with VEB may be legally permissible doesn’t mean that there aren’t reputational and other kinds of risks involved,</b>” said Mr. Goldman, now the executive director of the Center on Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. “The concern for me with this particular entity would be its reported ties to the Russian security services.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Spies in Suits</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mr. Gorkov, 48, graduated in 1994 from the university of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the K.G.B. — a school for spies. Like many in his generation of security agents in the early post-Soviet period, he ventured into banking and the oil business.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In fact, say businessmen who have worked in Russia, so many F.S.B. agents are in the upper management of state-owned companies that the roles of spy and executive blend almost seamlessly.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“In Putin’s Russia, they don’t draw a distinction,” said Mr. Amsterdam, the lawyer who represented Mr. Gorkov’s former employer.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Highly educated and often speaking foreign languages, former F.S.B. officers include Mr. Putin himself, senior officials throughout his government, and board members and top executives at state-run corporations.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mr. Gorkov’s biography on VEB’s website does not suggest he ever served in the F.S.B. The bank did not respond to questions about whether he worked for the agency.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the bank has been known to employ spies. In 2015, federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Washington announced charges against Evgeny Buryakov, an employee at VEB’s New York office, accusing him of acting as a covert agent of the S.V.R., the Russian foreign intelligence agency.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mr. Buryakov, who was charged alongside two other Russian men accused of trying to recruit Mr. Page, later pleaded guilty, and VEB paid his legal bills.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At the time, the authorities suspected that some VEB managers were aware of Mr. Buryakov’s spy activities, according to a person briefed on the investigation. Federal authorities recorded a conversation between the two co-defendants discussing how an S.V.R. official told Mr. Buryakov’s supervisor at VEB that Mr. Buryakov was an “employee of the service.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>VEB.RF,</b>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<b>VEB</b>&nbsp;(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language" title="Russian language" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian</a>:&nbsp;<span lang="ru">ВЭБ.РФ (ex-Vnesheconombank)</span>), is a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia" title="Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian</a>&nbsp;state development corporation. It was founded in 2007 as a development institute. Today VEB.RF is one of the largest investment companies<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></sup>&nbsp;and main development institute in Russia. It has financed more than 300 projects. The corporation's total assets were $50,3 billion, total liabilities were $45,2 billion, loan portfolio is&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://veb.ru/files/?file=41af7ddcdff18ca9c34466f76454f2d4.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">$31,3 billion</a>.</font></p><div id="toc" class="toc" style="background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); padding: 7px; display: table;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="direction: ltr; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><ul style="margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#Activities" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Activities</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#History" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">History</span></font></a><ul style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#Bank_for_Foreign_Economic_Affairs(1922-2007)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs (1922-2007)</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#Bank_of_Development(2007-2018)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Bank of Development (2007-2018)</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#State_Development_Corporation(from_2018)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">State Development Corporation (from 2018)</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#Organisation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Organisation</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">See also</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#Notes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Notes</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Activities">Activities</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VEB.RF&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Activities" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It's a non-political organisation. VEB.RF supports and develops the Russian economy. In partnership with commercial banks, it provides financing for large-scale projects to develop the country’s infrastructure, industrial production and social sphere, strengthen its technological potential and improve the quality of life<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></sup>. VEB.RF plans to invest in the country's economy about 45 billion dollars in five years.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">VEB.RF is validly existing under&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Russia" title="Law of Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian law</a>&nbsp;in the legal form of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonprofit_organization" title="Nonprofit organization" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">non-profit organization</a>”. It is not owned, nor directed by the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government" title="Government" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">government</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party" title="Political party" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">political party</a><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup>.</font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="History">History</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VEB.RF&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: History" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="Bank_for_Foreign_Economic_Affairs.281922-2007.29"><span class="mw-headline" id="Bank_for_Foreign_Economic_Affairs(1922-2007)">Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs (1922-2007)</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VEB.RF&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs (1922-2007)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></span></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1922, Swedish financier&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olof_Aschberg" title="Olof Aschberg" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Olof Aschberg</a>&nbsp;established the Soviet Union's first international bank, Roskombank (<span lang="ru" title="Russian language text">Роскомбанк</span>; "Russian Commercial Bank").</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 1924, the bank was renamed Vneshtorgbank (<span lang="ru" title="Russian language text">Внешторгбанк</span>; "Foreign Trade Bank of the USSR"), a joint stock bank. It was renamed Vnesheconombank ("Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of the USSR") in 1988.<sup id="cite_ref-vebhistory_10-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-vebhistory-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 2002, Vnesheconombank was&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restructuring" title="Restructuring" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">restructured</a>&nbsp;and it stepped up its efforts in servicing government programs, reduced the scope of its commercial business and gave a higher priority to supporting the government's&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_adjustment" title="Structural adjustment" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">structural reforms</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-vebhistory_10-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-vebhistory-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In April 2002, VEB was appointed Vnesheconombank agent for investing temporarily free Pension Fund's assets in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities" class="mw-redirect" title="Securities" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">securities</a>&nbsp;denominated in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_currency" class="mw-redirect" title="Foreign currency" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">foreign currency</a>, and in January 2003, a special structural subdivision to handle pension funds was formed; VEB was appointed the "State Trust Management Company" responsible for investing Russia's&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pension_Fund_of_the_Russian_Federation" title="Pension Fund of the Russian Federation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">pension funds</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-vebhistory_10-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-vebhistory-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">From 2005 to 2006, both the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assets" class="mw-redirect" title="Assets" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">assets</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liability(financial_accounting)" title="Liability (financial accounting)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">liabilities</a>&nbsp;of the bank doubled from around $6&nbsp;billion to $12&nbsp;billion, and the income rose from $239&nbsp;million to $301&nbsp;million.<sup id="cite_ref-annrep_11-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-annrep-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="Bank_of_Development.282007-2018.29"><span class="mw-headline" id="Bank_of_Development(2007-2018)">Bank of Development (2007-2018)</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VEB.RF&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Bank of Development (2007-2018)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></span></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In April 2007, Russia's&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Duma" title="State Duma" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">State Duma</a>&nbsp;passed the federal law "On Bank for Development," which regulated VEB's legal conditions and made it a state development bank.<sup id="cite_ref-profile_12-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-profile-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup>&nbsp;By late 2009 VEB quadrupled its assets to nearly 2 trillion rubles ($65 billion)<sup id="cite_ref-hobson16_14-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-hobson16-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup>, it was seen by the government as an off-budget fund, used to put off budget expenses.<sup id="cite_ref-hobson16_14-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-hobson16-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin" title="Vladimir Putin" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Vladimir Putin</a>&nbsp;increased lending when he became the VEB's chairman of its supervisory board in 2008.<sup id="cite_ref-NYT5june17_15-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-NYT5june17-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[15]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[a]</a></sup>&nbsp;By late 2009, VEB quadrupled its assets to nearly 2 trillion rubles ($65 billion),<sup id="cite_ref-hobson16_14-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-hobson16-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[14]</a></sup>&nbsp;it was seen by the government as an off-budget fund, used to put off budget expenses.</span><sup id="cite_ref-hobson16_14-3" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-hobson16-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In July 2014, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_the_Treasury" title="United States Department of the Treasury" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States Department of the Treasury</a>&nbsp;imposed&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_sanctions" title="Economic sanctions" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">economic sanctions</a>&nbsp;that greatly restricted U.S. persons and entities from providing doing business with VEB after&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during_the_2014_pro-Russian_unrest_in_Ukraine" class="mw-redirect" title="International sanctions during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">the 2014 pro-Russian unrest</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine" title="Ukraine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ukraine</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup>&nbsp;Between 2014 and 2017, the Russian&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Finance(Russia)" title="Ministry of Finance (Russia)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ministry of Finance</a>&nbsp;spent $10 billion on the bank.<sup id="cite_ref-NYT5june17_15-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-NYT5june17-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">VEB has suffered massive losses in 2014-2015, leading to a 330 billion rubles government bailout in 2015,<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup>&nbsp;followed by 150 billion rubles in 2016 and a similar amount planned for 2017.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a></sup>&nbsp;VEB was the main lender for the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Winter_Olympics" title="2014 Winter Olympics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2014 Winter Olympics</a>, and many of the loans originating from the games missed original returns forecasts, or had to be restructured.<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In March 2016, the bank was promised a $2.2 billion bailout from the Russian government.<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[21]</a></sup>&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Gorkov" class="mw-redirect" title="Sergey Gorkov" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Sergey Gorkov</a>, a former senior executive at&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank" class="mw-redirect" title="Sberbank" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Sberbank</a>, was appointed to lead VEB and come up with a turnaround strategy, which included the sale of non-core assets.<sup id="cite_ref-shinelight_23-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-shinelight-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[22]</a></sup>&nbsp;The government originally offered the position to&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Gref" class="mw-redirect" title="German Gref" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">German Gref</a>, who turned down the job</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-hobson16_14-4" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-hobson16-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">n March 2017, Ukraine imposed sanctions on Vnesheconombank </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(and other Russian state-owned banks operating in Ukraine: Sberbank, VTB Bank, VS Bank, Prominvestbank, and BM Bank) as part of its continued sanctions on Russia for its&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation" title="Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">annexation of Crimea</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;and involvement in the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbass" title="War in Donbass" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">War in Donbass</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-SBoUnsb_24-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-SBoUnsb-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-63Ukraine2017_25-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-63Ukraine2017-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-March16Ukraine2017sanctionsBanks_26-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-March16Ukraine2017sanctionsBanks-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;After that, the bank tried to sell its Ukrainian subsidiary; as of August&nbsp;2017&nbsp;unsuccessfully.</span><sup id="cite_ref-SBoUnsb_24-1" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-SBoUnsb-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;At Sochi in February, 2018, Vnesheconombank's Sergey Gorkov said they hoped to sell its Ukrainian subsidiary, Prominvestbank, by May 2018.</span><sup id="cite_ref-Talant20-02-2018_27-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-Talant20-02-2018-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2017, the bank's debt was $17 billion, including $14.2 billion in Ukraine.<sup id="cite_ref-NYT5june17_15-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-NYT5june17-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[15]</a></sup>&nbsp;In January 2017, Gorkov released the bank's "Strategy 2021," which predicted relief from sanctions, resuming borrowing in the United States, and shifting risks to the government's budget.<sup id="cite_ref-NYT5june17_15-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-NYT5june17-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[15]</a></sup>&nbsp;According to a report the&nbsp;<i style=""><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times" class="mw-redirect" title="New York Times" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">New York Times</a></i>&nbsp;published in May 2017, 40% of the bank's loans were at risk of default</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-NYT5june17_15-5" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-NYT5june17-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="State_Development_Corporation.28from_2018.29"><span class="mw-headline" id="State_Development_Corporation(from_2018)">State Development Corporation (from 2018)</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></span></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>In May 2018,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Shuvalov" title="Igor Shuvalov" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Igor Shuvalov</a>&nbsp;replaced Gorkov as VEB’s new chairman.</b><sup id="cite_ref-pismen18_28-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-pismen18-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup>&nbsp;In July 2018, the bank requested a further $16 billion bailout from the Russian government.<sup id="cite_ref-pismen18_28-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-pismen18-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup>&nbsp;In October 2018 the bank announced plans to rebrand, changing its denomination into 'National Development Institute', and confirming it would be granted 600 billion rubles ($9.1 billion) in subsidies from the federal budget by 2024, in addition to the 125 billion rubles received in 2018.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The net profit for the 2018 amounted to 3.85 billion rubles after a loss to 200,4 billion rubles a year earlier<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[29]</a></sup>. The net profit for the first quarter of 2019 17.6 billion rubles<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[30]</a></sup>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 2019, after a long period when VEB.RF instead of financing new projects was engaged in servicing distressed assets, new investment projects appeared in the portfolio of the state corporation. In the framework of VEB.RF went into the development of the Udokan's copper deposit ($490 million), the production of sulfuric acid at the "KuibyshevAzot" and capacity expansion of "Shchekinoazot" for the production of methanol (the total participation of the corporation 8.5 billion.)<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[31]</a></sup>. VEB.RF started financing the project of construction of six large-tonnage vessels at the Zvezda super-shipyard near Vladivostok. Also VEB.RF,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazprombank" title="Gazprombank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Gazprombank</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia" title="Sberbank of Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sberbank</a>&nbsp;announced the funding of the development of the Talitsky area of the Verkhnekamsk potash deposit in Perm<sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[32]</a></sup>. VEB.RF and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia" title="Sberbank of Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sberbank</a>&nbsp;will provide a syndicated loan for the modernization of Novaport group's regional airports in six cities of Russia, and together with <b>Rockwell Capital</b> will build the largest pulp and paper mill in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia" title="Siberia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Siberia</a>.</font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Organisation">Organisation</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VEB.RF&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Organisation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Chairman of VEB.RF is&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Shuvalov" title="Igor Shuvalov" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Igor Shuvalov</a>&nbsp;(since May 2018)<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-34" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a></sup>. He was first deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation from 2008 to 2018. The highest governing body of VEB.RF is the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervisory_board" title="Supervisory board" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Supervisory Board</a>, it chaired by the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Russia" title="Prime Minister of Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian Prime Minister</a><sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[34]</a></sup>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">VEB.RF coordinates development institutions of Russia: Russia export center, Corporation for small and medium business, the integrated housing development institution "DOM.RF", The monotowns development fund, Far East Development Fund etc<sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[35]</a></sup>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4">Ex-chairmans of Vnesheconombank:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomas_Alibegov" title="Tomas Alibegov" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Tomas Alibegov</a>, First Deputy Chairman and acting Chairman (1989–1997),&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Kostin" title="Andrey Kostin" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Andrey Kostin</a>&nbsp;(1996-2002)<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[36]</a></sup>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Dmitriev" title="Vladimir Dmitriev" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Vladimir Dmitriev</a>&nbsp;(2004-2016)<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[37]</a></sup>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Gorkov" title="Sergei Gorkov" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Sergei Gorkov</a>&nbsp;(2016-2018)<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB.RF#cite_note-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[38]</a></sup>.</font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXIAR" title="EXIAR" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">EXIAR</font></a></li></ul></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">&nbsp;Sberbank</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">&nbsp;</span></font></div><div style=""><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span id="US.2C_EU.2C_Switzerland.2C_and_Ukraine_sanctions:2014-2017"><span class="mw-headline" id="US,EU,Switzerland,and_Ukraine_sanctions:2014-2017">US, EU, Switzerland, and Ukraine sanctions: 2014-2017</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation" title="Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">annexation of the Crimean Peninsula</a>&nbsp;by Russia in 2014, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_administration" class="mw-redirect" title="Obama administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Obama administration</a>&nbsp;imposed sanctions on 12 September 2014, through the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Department_of_Treasury" class="mw-redirect" title="US Department of Treasury" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">US Department of Treasury</a>'s&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Foreign_Assets_Control" title="Office of Foreign Assets Control" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Office of Foreign Assets Control</a>&nbsp;(OFAC) by adding Sberbank and other entities to the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Foreign_Assets_Control#Specially_Designated_Nationals_List" title="Office of Foreign Assets Control" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN)</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[19]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[20]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-auto_21-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-auto-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[21]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-treasury_22-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-treasury-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[22]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-SDNlist_23-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-SDNlist-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[23]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Sanctions_24-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Sanctions-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[24]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Ukraine-EO13660_25-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Ukraine-EO13660-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[25]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Ukraine-EO13661_26-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Ukraine-EO13661-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[26]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Ukraine-EO13662_27-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Ukraine-EO13662-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[27]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[28]</a></sup>&nbsp;This was done in concert with 31 July 2014 addition of Sberbank to the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_individuals_sanctioned_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis" class="mw-redirect" title="List of individuals sanctioned during the Ukrainian crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">European Union sanctions list</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[29]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-reuters2014_30-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-reuters2014-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[30]</a></sup>&nbsp;</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sanctions consist of access restriction to the EU and US capital markets.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[31]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[32]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[33]</a></sup>&nbsp;After announcement of the sanctions, and by the end of July, Sberbank's market value had dropped the most market value among the world's major lenders plus investors moved $22 billion from Sberbank's market capitalization.<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-34" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[34]</a></sup>&nbsp;Still, during the following year Sberbank's share price grew back 89%.<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[35]</a></sup>&nbsp;Sberbank together with other Russian banks filed claims with the highest EU court to lift the punitive economic measures.<sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[36]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;">On 27 August 2014, Switzerland imposed sanctions on Sberbank and other Russian financial institutions.<sup id="cite_ref-SwissSanctions_37-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-SwissSanctions-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[37]</a></sup></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;">On 22 December 2015, the United States imposed additional sanctions on Sberbank and its subsidiaries.<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[38]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[39]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-auto_21-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-auto-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[21]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-treasury_22-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-treasury-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[22]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-SDNlist_23-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-SDNlist-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Ukraine-EO13662_27-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Ukraine-EO13662-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;">On 17 October 2016, Ukraine imposed sanctions against Sberbank Russia, Sberbank Leasing, and their payment systems Kolibri (Hummingbird), formerly Blitz (Ukrainian: «Колибри» стара назва – «Блиц»).<sup id="cite_ref-MailSanctions_40-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-MailSanctions-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[40]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-467Ukraine2016_41-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-467Ukraine2016-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[41]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Annex4_42-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Annex4-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[42]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">On 15 March 2017, the president of Ukraine imposed sanctions on Sberbank&nbsp;</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(and other Russian state-owned banks operating in Ukraine: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">VTB Bank, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">BM Bank, Prominvestbank, and&nbsp;</span><a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/VS_Bank" class="extiw" title="uk:VS Bank" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">VS Bank</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;(Ukrainian: ВіЕс Банк)) as part of its continued sanctions on Russia for its&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation" title="Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">annexation of Crimea</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;and involvement in the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbass" title="War in Donbass" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">War in Donbass</a></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-SBoUnsf_43-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-SBoUnsf-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[43]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-63Ukraine2017_44-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-63Ukraine2017-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[44]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-March16Ukraine2017sanctionsBanks_45-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-March16Ukraine2017sanctionsBanks-45" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[45]</a></sup></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><span class="mw-headline" id="2017_sale_of_VS_Bank_to_Tihipko">2017 sale of VS Bank to Tihipko</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In December 2017, due to sanctions, Sberbank sold its Ukrainian subsidiary, "VS Bank" (Ukrainian: ВіЕс Банк)<sup id="cite_ref-SBoUnsf_43-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-SBoUnsf-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[43]</a></sup>&nbsp;to Ukrainian businessman&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serhiy_Tihipko" title="Serhiy Tihipko" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Serhiy Tihipko</a></span>.<sup id="cite_ref-UNIANTihipkoBuysVS_46-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-UNIANTihipkoBuysVS-46" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[46]</a></sup></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><a href="https://russiabusinesstoday.com/economy/russias-state-run-bank-veb-hires-trump-insider-to-help-avoid-sanctions/">https://russiabusinesstoday.com/economy/russias-state-run-bank-veb-hires-trump-insider-to-help-avoid-sanctions/</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">9/14</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><a href="https://xn--90ab5f.xn--p1ai/en/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Vnesheconombank</a>, or VEB, Russia’s state-controlled development institute facing potential U.S. sanctions, has hired a well-positioned lobbyist in Washington – Trump insider and former Republican House member named John Sweeney,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-influence/2019/09/13/sweeney-will-lobby-for-russian-bank-742346" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Politico&nbsp;</a>reports.</b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">With Congress mulling legislation to slap new sanctions on Russia for its attack on the 2016 American election, Sweeney signed a whopping contract in August to lobby on behalf of the Russian bank to stave off sanctions from the U.S. government. The lobbyist, who formerly represented a district near Albany, filed paperwork late last month with the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit to represent Vnesheconombank.</p><div class="code-block code-block-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; clear: both;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The filing says that Sweeney will “engage in meetings and other communications with U.S. government officials regarding potential new sanctions legislation…that could affect” the bank.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>VEB’s chair, Igor Shuvalov, a former deputy minister in the Russian government, was appointed last year by President Vladimir Putin, who gave him orders to increase funding of national development projects.</b></p><div class="code-block code-block-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; clear: both;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Obama administration sanctioned VEB in 2014 as part of the U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Crimea.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shuvalov, along with all members of the bank’s supervisory board, was also included on a January 2018 Treasury Department&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/370313106/2018-01-29-Treasury-Caatsa-241-Final#from_embed" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">report&nbsp;</a>listing officials closely affiliated with the Russian government. That report, which Congress required Treasury to issue, did not lead to sanctions against those individuals. But the bank could be hurt by pending legislation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sweeney will do legal work for VEB, which “may include potential meetings with U.S. government officials regarding potential new sanctions legislation (not existing sanctions) that could affect” the bank, according to a copy of the contract filed with the Justice Department. The lucrative contract lasts a year and is worth $62,500 — which adds up to $750,000 for the whole year.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sweeney already has experience lobbying for Russian interests. Sweeney, who worked on President Donald Trump’s transition team, has lobbied since 2017 for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nord-stream2.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Nord Stream 2 AG</a>, the company behind a natural gas pipeline under construction between Germany and Russia.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> He’s lobbied the White House and the State Department on Nord Stream’s behalf, according to disclosure filings. Nord Stream is controlled by&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.gazprom.com/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Gazprom</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, which is in turn partially owned by the Russian government.</span></p></div></div></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">talk: disputes sanctuions</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(221, 255, 221);">&nbsp;user has&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sock_puppetry#Legitimate_uses_of_alternative_accounts" title="Wikipedia:Sock puppetry" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(221, 255, 221);">alternative accounts</a><span style="background-color: rgb(221, 255, 221);">&nbsp;named</span></font><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(221, 255, 221);"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Soh.Miero.Bot" title="User:Soh.Miero.Bot" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Soh.Miero.Bot</a></b>,&nbsp;<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Doomukoh" title="User:Doomukoh" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Doomukoh</a></b>.]</font></dd><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></dd><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></dd></dl></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>VTB Bank</b>&nbsp;(Russian:&nbsp;<b>ПАО Банк ВТБ</b>, former&nbsp;<b>V</b>nesh<b>t</b>org<b>b</b>ank, lit. foreign trade bank) is one of the leading<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (September 2019)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup>&nbsp;universal banks of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia" title="Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russia</a>. VTB Bank and its subsidiaries form a leading<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (September 2019)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup>&nbsp;Russian financial group – VTB Group, offering a wide range of banking services and products in Russia, CIS, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the U.S.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">VTB was ranked 446th on the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Times_Global_500" title="Financial Times Global 500" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">FT Global 500</a>&nbsp;2012,<sup id="cite_ref-:0_4-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-:0-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a></sup>&nbsp;The&nbsp;<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Times" title="Financial Times" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Financial Times</a></i>’ annual snapshot of the world's largest companies. It climbed to 210th in the ranking of the 500 largest companies in Europe, the FT Europe 500 2014,<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a></sup>&nbsp;and to 127th in the FT Emerging 500 2014, the list of the 500 largest companies on the world's emerging markets. The Moscow-based bank is registered in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg" title="Saint Petersburg" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">St. Petersburg</a>&nbsp;and came 66th in the British magazine&nbsp;<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banker" title="The Banker" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Banker</a></i>’s Top 1,000 World Banks in terms of capital in 2014. Also it has won “Bank of the Year in Russia” in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banker" title="The Banker" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Banker</a>&nbsp;magazine’s “Bank of the Year Awards 2018” awards.</font></p><div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); padding: 7px; display: table;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="direction: ltr; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><h2 id="mw-toc-heading" style="background: none; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contents</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h2><span class="toctogglespan" style=""><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox" style="cursor: pointer;" /></span></div><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#History" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">History</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Mergers_and_acquisitions" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Mergers and acquisitions</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Corporate_affairs" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Corporate affairs</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Shareholders" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Shareholders</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Management" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Management</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Supervisory_council" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Supervisory council</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Financial_data" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Financial data</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Major_subsidiaries" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Major subsidiaries</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Corporate_social_responsibility" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Corporate social responsibility</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Sports" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Sports</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Culture" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Culture</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#Healthcare" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Healthcare</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">See also</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">8</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="History">History</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VTB_Bank&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: History" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><table class="box-Disputed plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-disputed" role="presentation" style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); margin: 0px 135.797px; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 10px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(162, 169, 177) rgb(162, 169, 177) rgb(162, 169, 177) rgb(242, 133, 0); border-image: initial; box-sizing: border-box;"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image" style="border: none; padding: 2px 0px 2px 0.5em; text-align: center;"><div style="width: 52px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img alt="System-search.svg" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/System-search.svg/45px-System-search.svg.png" decoding="async" width="45" height="45" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/System-search.svg/68px-System-search.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/System-search.svg/90px-System-search.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="48" data-file-height="48" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" /></font></div></td><td class="mbox-text" style="border: none; padding: 0.25em 0.5em; width: 848px;"><div class="mbox-text-span"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This section's&nbsp;<b>factual accuracy is&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Accuracy_dispute" title="Wikipedia:Accuracy dispute" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">disputed</a></b>.<span class="hide-when-compact">&nbsp;Relevant discussion may be found on&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:VTB_Bank#False_claims_regarding_sanctions" title="Talk:VTB Bank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Talk:VTB Bank</a>. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources" title="Wikipedia:Reliable sources" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">reliably sourced</a>.</span>&nbsp;<small class="date-container" style=""><i>(<span class="date">March 2018</span>)</i></small><small class="hide-when-compact" style=""><i>&nbsp;(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Learn how and when to remove this template message</a>)</i></small></font></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">VTB Bank was founded as Vneshtorgbank in 1990 with the support of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Bank_of_Russia" title="Central Bank of Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian State Bank</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Finance(Russia)" title="Ministry of Finance (Russia)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ministry of Finance</a>. It was set up as a limited liability company with the aim of servicing Russia's foreign trade operations and promoting Russia's integration into the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_economy" title="World economy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">global economy</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 2004, the bank acquired a majority stake of 85.8% in Guta Bank, which was reorganised into a retail bank, Vneshtorgbank 24 (VTB24).<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></sup>&nbsp;The bank also acquired the Armenian Armsberbank, which was later renamed VTB Armenia.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></sup>&nbsp;In 2005, the bank acquired 75% plus three shares of the Promstroybank (PSB), which was reorganised as Bank VTB North-West and later became VTB's North-Western Regional Centre,<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup>&nbsp;and bought the Ukrainian bank Mriya, which was later merged with VTB Bank (Ukraine).<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 2007, the bank set up a subsidiary in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola" title="Angola" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Angola</a>&nbsp;known as VTB África.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup>&nbsp;The bank also took over Slavneftebank in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus" title="Belarus" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Belarus</a>&nbsp;and later renamed it VTB Belarus.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup>&nbsp;In June, VTB became the first Russian bank to offer an&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering" title="Initial public offering" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">initial public offering</a>&nbsp;(IPO), raising $8 billion in what became the largest international banking IPO at the time.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 2008, the bank acquired a 51% stake in AF Bank in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan" title="Azerbaijan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Azerbaijan</a>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AF_Holding_International" class="mw-redirect" title="AF Holding International" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">AF Holding International</a>, later renaming it VTB Azerbaijan.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup>&nbsp;In 2010, the bank's board approved the phased acquisition of TransCreditBank from&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Railways" title="Russian Railways" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian Railways</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup>&nbsp;In 2013, VTB carried out a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_public_offering" class="mw-redirect" title="Secondary public offering" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">secondary public offering</a>&nbsp;(SPO) which raised 102.5 billion rubles ($3.3 billion) and diluted the Russian government's share in VTB from 75.5 percent to 60.9 percent.<sup id="cite_ref-SPO_MT_2013_16-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-SPO_MT_2013-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In July 2014, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Foreign_Assets_Control" title="Office of Foreign Assets Control" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Office of Foreign Assets Control</a>&nbsp;(OFAC) published that the Bank of Moscow and VTB Bank have been added to the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Foreign_Assets_Control#Sectoral_Sanctions_Identifications" title="Office of Foreign Assets Control" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List</a>. Later, VTB Bank and its subsidiaries were added on the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_individuals_sanctioned_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis" class="mw-redirect" title="List of individuals sanctioned during the Ukrainian crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">European Union sanctions list</a>, and VTB was added on the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_individuals_sanctioned_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis" class="mw-redirect" title="List of individuals sanctioned during the Ukrainian crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Canadian sanctions list</a>. Subsequently, US increases its sectoral sanctions on VTB Bank, its subsidiaries. In September: VTB was added to the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_individuals_sanctioned_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis" class="mw-redirect" title="List of individuals sanctioned during the Ukrainian crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Australian autonomous sanctions list</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a></sup>&nbsp;The US also issued a consolidated listing of directives regarding Executive Order 13662 sanctions. Directive 1 was amended to increase the financial sanctions for "all transactions in, provision of financing for, and other dealings" in new equity or new debt issued on or after 12 September 2014 to&nbsp;<i>longer than 30 days maturity</i>. New equity or new debt issued from 29 July 2018 until 12 September 2018 was sanctioned if&nbsp;<i>longer than 90 days maturity</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[21]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In July 2015, an agreement approved by Russian Prime Minister&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Medvedev" title="Dmitry Medvedev" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dmitry Medvedev</a>&nbsp;for the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Post" title="Russian Post" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian Post</a>&nbsp;purchase of 50% minus 1 share of Leto Bank from VTB24, to reorganise it into the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Bank(Russia)" title="Post Bank (Russia)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">National Post Bank</a>, with the remaining 50% plus one share to be owned by VTB24. The agreement was signed by VTB Bank CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Kostin" title="Andrey Kostin" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Andrey Kostin</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Post" title="Russian Post" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian Post</a>&nbsp;director&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Strashnov" title="Dmitry Strashnov" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dmitry Strashnov</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Nikiforov" title="Nikolay Nikiforov" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nikolay Nikiforov</a>, Russia's&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Digital_Development,Communications_and_Mass_Media(Russia)" title="Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media (Russia)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media</a>. Kostin also suggested appointing Dmitry Rudenko, the current head of Leto Bank, as the head of the National Post Bank.<sup id="cite_ref-Lenta2015-9-7_24-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-Lenta2015-9-7-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a></sup>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In March 2017, Ukraine imposed sanctions against VTB Bank and subsidiaries for the alleged Russian interference in Ukraine.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a></sup>&nbsp;In November 2017, the United States increased Executive Order 13662 sanctions, with Directive 1 amended to increase the financial sanctions for "all transactions in, provision of financing for, and other dealings" in new equity or new debt issued on or after 28 November 2017 to&nbsp;<i>longer than 14 days maturity</i>. New equity or new debt issued from 12 September 2014 until 28 November 2017 was sanctioned if&nbsp;<i>longer than 30 days maturity</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In August 2018, it was announced that VTB Bank would acquire a 75% stake in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vozrozhdenie_Bank" title="Vozrozhdenie Bank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Vozrozhdenie Bank</a>&nbsp;after its previous owners oversaw a "major banking collapse".<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a></sup>&nbsp;In November 2018, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bank_of_Ukraine" title="National Bank of Ukraine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">National Bank of Ukraine</a>&nbsp;declared the Ukrainian subsidiary of VTB Bank insolvent due to its declining liquidity and worsening financial position.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[29]</a></sup>&nbsp;In December 2018, it was announced that VTB Bank would be acquiring controlling stakes in Sarovbusinessbank (81.1%) and Zapsibcombank (71.8%).<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[30]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Mergers_and_acquisitions">Mergers and acquisitions</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VTB_Bank&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Mergers and acquisitions" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VTB Bank took over 15 banks between 2002 and February 2019:</font></p><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Guta Bank (2004), later renamed VTB24</font></li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Moscow" title="Bank of Moscow" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Bank of Moscow</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TransCreditBank</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Armsberbank in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia" title="Armenia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Armenia</a>&nbsp;(2004), later renamed VTB Armenia<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[31]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Promstroybank (2005), renamed Bank VTB North-West and later reorganised as VTB's North-Western Regional Centre<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[32]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Eurobank in France (2005), later renamed VTB France<sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Evrofinance Mosnarbank in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain" title="Great Britain" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Great Britain</a>&nbsp;(2005), later renamed VTB Europe Plc, and then VTB Capital Plc</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ost-West_Handelsbank" title="Ost-West Handelsbank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ost-West Handelsbank</a>&nbsp;AG in Germany (2005), later renamed VTB Germany<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-34" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[34]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">United Georgian Bank (2005), later renamed VTB Georgia<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[35]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Mriya in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine" title="Ukraine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ukraine</a>&nbsp;(2006), later merged with VTB Ukraine<sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[36]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Slavneftebank in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus" title="Belarus" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Belarus</a>&nbsp;(2007), later renamed VTB Belarus<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[37]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">AF Bank in Azerbaijan from&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AF_Holding_International" class="mw-redirect" title="AF Holding International" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">AF Holding International</a>&nbsp;(2008), later VTB Azerbaijan<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[38]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vozrozhdenie_Bank" title="Vozrozhdenie Bank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Vozrozhdenie</a>&nbsp;(2018)</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zapsibkombank (2018)</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SarovBusinessBank (2018).</font></li></ul><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Corporate_affairs">Corporate affairs</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VTB_Bank&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Corporate affairs" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Shareholders">Shareholders</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VTB_Bank&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Shareholders" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The main shareholder of VTB is the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Russia" title="Government of Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian government</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-NYT2017-11-05_39-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-NYT2017-11-05-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[39]</a></sup>&nbsp;which owns 60.9% of the lender through its&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Agency_for_State_Property_Management" title="Federal Agency for State Property Management" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Federal Agency for State Property Management</a>. The remaining shares are split between holders of its&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_depository_receipt" title="Global depository receipt" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Global Depository Receipts</a>&nbsp;and minority shareholders, both individuals and companies.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In February 2011, the government floated an additional 10% minus two shares of VTB Bank. The private investors, who paid a total of 95.7 billion rubles ($3.1 billion) for the assets, included the investment funds&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assicurazioni_Generali" title="Assicurazioni Generali" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Generali</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TPG_Capital" title="TPG Capital" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">TPG Capital</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Investment_Corporation" title="China Investment Corporation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">China Investment Corp</a>, a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund" title="Sovereign wealth fund" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">sovereign wealth fund</a>&nbsp;responsible for managing China's&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_reserves" title="Foreign exchange reserves" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">foreign exchange reserves</a>, and companies affiliated with businessman&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suleiman_Kerimov" class="mw-redirect" title="Suleiman Kerimov" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Suleiman Kerimov</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[40]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In May 2013 VTB completed a secondary public offering (SPO), issuing 2.5 trillion new additional shares by public subscription. All shares were placed on&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Exchange" title="Moscow Exchange" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Moscow's primary stock exchange</a>. The government did not participate in the SPO, so its stake in the bank decreased to 60.9% after the subscription closed. The bank raised 102.5 billion rubles worth of additional capital. Three sovereign wealth funds, Norway's&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norges_Bank" title="Norges Bank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Norges Bank</a>&nbsp;Investment Management,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_Holding_LLC" class="mw-redirect" title="Qatar Holding LLC" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Qatar Holding LLC</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Oil_Fund_of_the_Republic_of_Azerbaijan" class="mw-redirect" title="State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan</a>&nbsp;(SOFAZ) and commercial bank&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Construction_Bank" title="China Construction Bank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">China Construction Bank</a>&nbsp;became the largest investors during the SPO, after purchasing more than half of the additional shares issued.<sup id="cite_ref-SPO_MT_2013_16-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-SPO_MT_2013-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Management">Management</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As of&nbsp;<b>February 2019</b>, its Management Committee consists of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Kostin" title="Andrey Kostin" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Andrey Kostin</a>&nbsp;(Chairman since 10 June 2002), President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board, Member of the Supervisory Council, Dmitry Olyunin (First Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board), Andrey Puchkov (First Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board), Yuri Soloviev (First Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board), Denis Bortnikov (Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board), Olga Dergunova (Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board), Valery Lukyanenko (Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board), Anatoly Pechatnikov (Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board), Maxim Kondratenko (Member of VTB Bank Management Board), Erkin Norov (Member of VTB Bank Management Board), Dmitriy Pianov (Member of VTB Bank Management Board), Oleg Smirnov (Member of VTB Bank Management Board), Valery Chulkov (Member of VTB Bank Management Board).</font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Supervisory_council">Supervisory council</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VTB_Bank&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Supervisory council" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As of February 2019, VTB's Supervisory Council consists of&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Siluanov" title="Anton Siluanov" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Anton Siluanov</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;(Chairman of the Supervisory Council), Matthias Warnig (member of the Supervisory Council),[8] Sergey Dubinin (member of supervisory council), Yves Thibault de Silguy (Independent member of supervisory council),&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Mikhailovich_Zadornov" title="Mikhail Mikhailovich Zadornov" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Mikhail Zadornov</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;(Member of Supervisory Council),&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Kostin" title="Andrey Kostin" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Andrey Kostin</a>&nbsp;(President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">), Shahmar Movsumov (Independent member of supervisory council), Igor Repin (Independent member of Supervisory Council), Alexander Sokolov (Member of Supervisory Council), Vladimir Chistyukhin (member of supervisory council),&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Eskindarov" title="Mikhail Eskindarov" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Mukhadin Eskindarov</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;(Member of Supervisory Council).&nbsp;</span><sup id="cite_ref-VTBSupervisoryCouncil_41-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTB_Bank#cite_note-VTBSupervisoryCouncil-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Financial_data"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Financial data</font></span></h2></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref timeline:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>December 8–13</b>: Outspoken Trump supporter&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_County_Sheriff%27s_Office" title="Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Milwaukee Sheriff</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Clarke(sheriff)" title="David Clarke (sheriff)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">David Clarke</a>, former NRA President&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Keene" title="David Keene" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">David Keene</a>, future NRA President Pete Brownell, NRA Golden Ring of Freedom Chair Joe Gregory, major NRA donors Hilary<sup id="cite_ref-185" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-185" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[185]</a></sup>&nbsp;and Arnold Goldschlager,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outdoor_Channel" title="Outdoor Channel" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Outdoor Channel</a>&nbsp;CEO Jim Liberatore,<sup id="cite_ref-BeforeHerArrestWapo20180725_186-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-BeforeHerArrestWapo20180725-186" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[186]</a></sup>&nbsp;and NRA member&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erickson(activist)" title="Paul Erickson (activist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Paul Erickson</a>&nbsp;travel to Moscow for the "Right to Bear Arms" convention. They meet Russian government officials, including&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Prime_Minister_of_Russia" title="Deputy Prime Minister of Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Deputy Prime Minister of Russia</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Rogozin" title="Dmitry Rogozin" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dmitry Rogozin</a><sup id="cite_ref-187" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-187" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[187]</a></sup>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_of_Foreign_Affairs(Russia)" title="Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russia)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Foreign Minister</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Lavrov" title="Sergey Lavrov" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sergey Lavrov</a>. Rogozin is under&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis" title="International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. sanctions</a>. Butina accompanies the delegation on a tour of the gun manufacturer&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORSIS" title="ORSIS" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ORSIS</a>, where they meet with the company's executives, including Svetlana Nikolaev, president of ORSIS's parent company and wife of billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Nikolaev" title="Konstantin Nikolaev" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Konstantin Nikolaev</a>. They also meet with Torshin and Sergei Rudov, the head of the Saint Basil the Great Charitable Foundation. They attend a party at a Moscow hunting club hosted by Torshin and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Gusev(journalist)" title="Pavel Gusev (journalist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Pavel Gusev</a>, the Chairman of the Public Council of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Defence(Russia)" title="Ministry of Defence (Russia)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Russian Ministry of Defense</a>. Clarke later files an ethics report showing that Butina's organization, "Right to Bear Arms", covered $6,000 of his expenses.<sup id="cite_ref-TwoRussianGunLovers20180308_48-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TwoRussianGunLovers20180308-48" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[48]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-MoscowCoziesUpToRightTime20170310_133-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MoscowCoziesUpToRightTime20170310-133" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[133]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-RussiansInfitrateNRARollingStone20180402_188-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-RussiansInfitrateNRARollingStone20180402-188" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[188]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-189" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-189" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[189]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-KremlinDiscussedButinaNRAMedium20180406_190-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-KremlinDiscussedButinaNRAMedium20180406-190" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[190]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-191" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-191" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[191]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-192" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-192" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[192]</a></sup>&nbsp;Butina covers some of the cost of Liberatore's attendance, and is subsequently reimbursed $6,000 by the NRA from its president's budget.<sup id="cite_ref-RussiansUsedGreedToDailyBeast20190927_193-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-RussiansUsedGreedToDailyBeast20190927-193" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[193]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-WydenUnveilsReportOnSFC20191227_194-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-WydenUnveilsReportOnSFC20191227-194" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[194]</a></sup>&nbsp;After the Lavrov meeting, Butina emails Torshin, writing, "We should let them express their gratitude now, and put pressure on them quietly later."<sup id="cite_ref-195" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-195" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[195]</a></sup>&nbsp;In May 2018, NRA spokeswoman&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Loesch" title="Dana Loesch" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dana Loesch</a>&nbsp;denies there was an NRA trip to Moscow, then clarifies in July 2018 that it wasn't an official trip.<sup id="cite_ref-NRAHasDeepTiesMotherJones20180719_119-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-NRAHasDeepTiesMotherJones20180719-119" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[119]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-196" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-196" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[196]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-197" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-197" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[197]</a></sup>&nbsp;A 2019 report by the Democratic Minority of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Finance_Committee" class="mw-redirect" title="Senate Finance Committee" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Senate Finance Committee</a>&nbsp;concludes that despite the public denials, internal NRA documents show the trip was an officially sanctioned event that may have imperiled the NRA's&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_exemption" title="Tax exemption" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">tax-free status</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-NRAMayHaveViolatedWaPo20190927_198-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-NRAMayHaveViolatedWaPo20190927-198" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[198]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-WydenUnveilsReportOnSFC20191227_194-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-WydenUnveilsReportOnSFC20191227-194" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[194]</a></sup></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>December 10</b>:</font><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Flynn gives a paid speech on world affairs in Moscow, at a gala dinner organized by&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_News" class="mw-redirect" title="RT News" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">RT News</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-199" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-199" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[199]</a></sup>&nbsp;Flynn had appeared on RT as an analyst after retiring from the U.S. Army. Putin is the dinner's guest of honor.<sup id="cite_ref-Crowley_200-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-Crowley-200" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[200]</a></sup>&nbsp;Flynn is seated next to Putin; also seated at the head table are&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_of_the_United_States" title="Green Party of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Green Party</a>&nbsp;presidential candidate&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Stein" title="Jill Stein" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jill Stein</a>&nbsp;and members of Putin's inner circle, including&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Ivanov" title="Sergei Ivanov" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sergei Ivanov</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Peskov" title="Dmitry Peskov" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dmitry Peskov</a>, Vekselberg, and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Gromov" title="Alexey Gromov" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Alexey Gromov</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-201" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-201" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[201]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-202" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-202" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[202]</a></sup>&nbsp;For his speech, Flynn nets $33,500 of the $45,000 paid to his&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakers_bureau" title="Speakers bureau" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">speakers bureau</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-203" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-203" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[203]</a></sup>&nbsp;For all of 2015, Flynn receives more than $65,000 from companies linked to Russia.<sup id="cite_ref-204" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-204" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[204]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i>ABC News</i>&nbsp;reports that Trump denied knowing Sater under oath in a 2013 video deposition even though Sater was involved in several of his high-profile projects. Trump testified, "If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn't know what he looked like." On December 30, Sater tells Cohen that he helped bury the story.<sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-MemoryLapseTrumpABC20151210_205-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MemoryLapseTrumpABC20151210-205" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[205]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-206" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-206" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[206]</a></sup></font></li></ul></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>December 16</b>: Smith declines to help Ledeen's endeavor to find Clinton's emails because he feels the search isn't viable at the time.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-36" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:63</sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">December 19</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In an email to Cohen, Sater talks about securing financing from VTB, a Russian bank under American sanctions.</span><sup id="cite_ref-SubvertTime_144-3" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-SubvertTime-144" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[144]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-37" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:76</sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sater also asks for Cohen's and Trump's passport information so that VTB can facilitate obtaining visas.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-38" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:76</sup>&nbsp;VTB would be issuing the invitation, he writes, because "[p]olitically neither Putins office nor Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot issue invite, so they are inviting commercially/ business."<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-39" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:76</sup>&nbsp;He writes that they will be invited to the Russian consulate that week to receive an invitation and visas for traveling to Russia.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-40" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:76</sup>&nbsp;Cohen sends images of his own passport but not Trump's</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-8" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-207" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-207" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[207]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-41" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:76</sup></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>December 21</b>:</font><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Clinton campaign chairman&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Podesta" title="John Podesta" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">John Podesta</a>&nbsp;receives an email, which is later leaked by WikiLeaks, advising the campaign on how to handle Trump, recommending that the "best approach is to slaughter Donald for his bromance with Putin".<sup id="cite_ref-208" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-208" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[208]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sater texts Cohen asking again for a copy of Trump's passport.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-42" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:77</sup>&nbsp;Cohen replies, "After I return from Moscow with you with a date for him."<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-43" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:77</sup>&nbsp;In September 2018 Cohen tells Mueller's team that Rhona Graff provided Trump's passport to Cohen's office, but the Mueller Report says the team could not find any evidence of a copy being sent to Sater.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-44" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:76-77</sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On Russian Deputy Prime Minister&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Eduardovich_Prikhodko" title="Sergei Eduardovich Prikhodko" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sergei Prikhodko</a>'s behalf, Mira Duma emails Ivanka Trump an invitation for Donald Trump to attend the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St.Petersburg_International_Economic_Forum" title="St. Petersburg International Economic Forum" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">St. Petersburg International Economic Forum</a>. Duma is acquainted with Ivanka from the fashion industry.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-45" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:78</sup></font></li></ul></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">December 30</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cohen emails Sater complaining about the lack of progress on the <b>Trump Tower Moscow project</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Sater responds that he helped bury an&nbsp;</span><i style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ABC News</i><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;story in which Trump denied knowing him.</span><sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-9" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-MemoryLapseTrumpABC20151210_205-1" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MemoryLapseTrumpABC20151210-205" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[205]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Cohen tells Sater in a text message that he will set up a meeting with Russian government officials himself."</span><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-46" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:74</sup></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>December 31</b>: Sater tells Cohen that Genbank (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%D0%93%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Генбанк (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Генбанк</a><span class="noprint" style="">&nbsp;[<a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA" class="extiw" title="ru:Генбанк" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ru</a>]</span>), recently put under U.S. sanctions, will be the new funder for the Trump Tower Moscow project.<sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-10" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Late 2015 – early 2016</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">:</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump are included on emails about the Trump Tower Moscow projec</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">t. Ivanka Trump recommends an architect.</span><sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-11" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-209" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-209" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[209]</a></sup></font></li></ul><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="January.E2.80.93March_2016"><span class="mw-headline" id="January–March_2016">January–March 2016</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections&action=edit&section=26" title="Edit section: January–March 2016" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></span></font></h3><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>January</b>:</font><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Flynn applies to renew his security clearance for five years. In an interview with security investigators he claims U.S. companies paid for his trip to the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT(TV_network)" title="RT (TV network)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">RT</a>&nbsp;dinner in Moscow. Documents subsequently obtained by the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Oversight_Committee" class="mw-redirect" title="House Oversight Committee" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">House Oversight Committee</a>&nbsp;show that&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT(TV_network)" title="RT (TV network)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">RT</a>&nbsp;paid for the trip.<sup id="cite_ref-CummingsLetter20170522_210-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-CummingsLetter20170522-210" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[210]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">FBI initiates tax evasion and money laundering investigation regarding payments from the Ukrainian government to Paul Manafort.<sup id="cite_ref-211" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-211" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[211]</a></sup></font></li></ul></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>January 7</b>: Ivanka Trump forwards to Rhona Graff the December 21 invitation for her father she received from Duma on Prikhodko's behalf.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-47" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:78</sup></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>January 11</b>: Cohen tries to send an email to Dmitry Peskov asking to be connected to Putin's chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, but it&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounce_message" title="Bounce message" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">bounces</a>&nbsp;because of a typo in the email address.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-48" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:74</sup></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>January 14</b>:</font><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cohen emails Peskov at<code style="background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); border: 1px solid rgb(234, 236, 240); border-radius: 2px; padding: 1px 4px;">info@prpress.gov.ru</code>&nbsp;seeking help to jump-start the Trump Tower Moscow project because "the communication between our two sides has stalled", but does not receive a response.<sup id="cite_ref-SubvertTime_144-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-SubvertTime-144" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[144]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-12" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-cnn-20170830_212-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-cnn-20170830-212" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[212]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-213" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-213" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[213]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-49" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:74</sup>&nbsp;In August 2017 Peskov tells CNN that Cohen's email "went unanswered [because it] was solely regarding a real estate deal and nothing more."<sup id="cite_ref-cnn-20170830_212-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-cnn-20170830-212" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[212]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Graff responds to Duma's December 21 email that Trump is "honored to be asked to participate in the highly prestigious" St. Petersburg Forum, but must decline the invitation because of his "very grueling and full travel schedule." Graff asks Duma if she should "send a formal note to the Deputy Prime Minister," and Duma replies that that would be "great."<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-50" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:78–79</sup></font></li></ul></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">January 16</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: Cohen emails at Peskov at&nbsp;</span><code style="background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); border: 1px solid rgb(234, 236, 240); border-radius: 2px; padding: 1px 4px;">Pr_peskov@prpress.gov.ru</code><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, the correct address he mistyped on January 11, and repeats his request to speak with Ivanov.</span><sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-13" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-51" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:74</sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Later Cohen tells Congress and Mueller's team that he received no response to this email and abandoned the Trump Moscow Project. He later admits to federal prosecutors that he did receive a response and continued working on the project and keeping Trump updated on progress into June 2016</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-214" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-214" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[214]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-52" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:74–75</sup></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>January 19</b>: Konstantin Sidorkov, executive at&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VKontakte" class="mw-redirect" title="VKontakte" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">VKontakte</a>&nbsp;(commonly called VK, Russia's equivalent of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook" title="Facebook" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Facebook</a>), emails Trump Jr. and social media director&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Scavino" title="Dan Scavino" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dan Scavino</a>&nbsp;offering to help promote Trump's campaign to its nearly 100 million users. Goldstone brokered the overture.<sup id="cite_ref-SubvertTime_144-5" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-SubvertTime-144" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[144]</a></sup>&nbsp;Sidorkov emails again on November 5, 2016.<sup id="cite_ref-SidorkovTrumpJrWapo20171207_215-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-SidorkovTrumpJrWapo20171207-215" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[215]</a></sup></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>January 20</b>:</font><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A Russian social media company emails Trump Jr., Trump's personal assistant, and Scavino about setting up a page for Trump's campaign.<sup id="cite_ref-SubvertTime_144-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-SubvertTime-144" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[144]</a></sup></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Peskov's personal assistant Elena Polikova sends an email to Cohen from her personal account asking him to call her on her personal phone number, which she provides.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-53" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:75</sup>&nbsp;Cohen calls her and explains the nature and status of the project, and asks for assistance with securing land and financing.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-54" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:75</sup><sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-14" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-50MilllionPenthouse20181129_216-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-50MilllionPenthouse20181129-216" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[216]</a></sup>&nbsp;The conversation includes a discussion of giving Putin a $50 million&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penthouse_apartment" title="Penthouse apartment" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">penthouse</a>&nbsp;in the tower as a gift.<sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-15" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-50MilllionPenthouse20181129_216-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-50MilllionPenthouse20181129-216" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[216]</a></sup>&nbsp;Later Cohen tells prosecutors that Polikova took notes, asked detailed questions, and said she needed to follow up with people in Russia.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-55" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:75</sup></font></li></ul></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">January 21</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: Sater texts Cohen asking for a call. He writes, "It's about Putin they called today."</span><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-56" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:75</sup><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-II_54-2" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-II-54" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[54]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:136</sup><sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-16" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;Sater emails Cohen a draft invitation from <b>Genbank</b> for Cohen to visit Russia, which Sater says is being offered at the behest of VTB, and asks Cohen if any changes need to be made</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-57" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:75</sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Sater and Cohen work on edits for the next few days.</span><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-58" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:75</sup></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>January 25</b>: Sater sends Cohen a signed invitation from&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Ryabinskiy" title="Andrey Ryabinskiy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Andrey Ryabinskiy</a>&nbsp;of the company MHJ to travel to "Moscow for a working visit" about the "prospects of development and the construction business in Russia," "the various land plots available suited for construction of this enormous Tower," and "the opportunity to co-ordinate a follow up visit to Moscow by Mr. Donald Trump."<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-59" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:75</sup><sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-II_54-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-II-54" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[54]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:136</sup><sup id="cite_ref-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129_165-17" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-TheEventsThatLedWapo20181129-165" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[165]</a></sup>&nbsp;In September 2018 Cohen tells Mueller's team that he didn't use the invitation to travel to Moscow because he didn't receive any concrete proposals for suitable land plots.<sup id="cite_ref-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I_27-60" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections#cite_note-MUELLER-REPORT-VOL-I-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;">:75-76</sup></font></li></ul></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/the-million-dollar-question-finance-editor-breaks-down-dojs-bizarre-abandonment-of-a-russian-money-laundering-case-against-deutsche-bank/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/the-million-dollar-question-finance-editor-breaks-down-dojs-bizarre-abandonment-of-a-russian-money-laundering-case-against-deutsche-bank/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘The million-dollar question’: Finance editor breaks down DOJ’s bizarre abandonment of a Russian money laundering case against Deutsche bank</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Alex Henderson February 18, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When other banks weren’t making generous loans to Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, Deutsche Bank was. <b>David Enrich, finance editor of the New York Times</b> and author of the new book, “<b>Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump and an Epic Trail of Destruction,</b>” discussed Deutsche’s relationship Trump and a seemingly abandoned U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) case against the bank during a Monday night, February 17 appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Maddow, noting that Trump “probably owes hundreds of millions of dollars to this one institution,” asked Enrich “whatever happened to” a possible U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) case against Deutsche Bank that involved a “Russian money laundering scandal.” And Enrich responded, “That is the million-dollar question.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Enrich explained that during the final months of the Obama Administration, the DOJ was “close” to bringing a “criminal case” against Deutsche Bank “for its involvement in Russian money laundering” — but after Trump became president, the case fell by the wayside.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Deutsche Bank executives became convinced that this was just too hot to handle for the Trump Administration,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” Enrich told Maddow. “They did not want anyone in the Administration to bring more public attention to the<b>&nbsp;very close relationship between Deutsche Bank and Russia on the one hand and Deutsche Bank and Trump on the other hand.”</b></span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Maddow asked Enrich what Deutsche Bank has told him about either the Trump Administration or the bank’s ties to Russia. And Enrich responded, “They’ve publicly refused to speak (or) say much of anything in public about their client. They acknowledge that Trump is a client. Trump has disclosed, in his limited White House disclosures, the amounts that he owes and what those loans are.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Enrich went on to say, “They are trying to — desperately, I think — make this very bad situation, where they are kind of the public face of Donald Trump’s finances…. go away.”</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2017/12/29/donald-trump-russia-secret-deutsche-bank-753780.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.<b>newsweek.com/2017</b>/12/29/donald-trump-russia-secret-deutsche-bank-753780.html</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It sounded like an exhausted parent scolding a tantrum-prone toddler with a penchant for tossing toys from his stroller.In November 2008, Steven Molo, an attorney for Deutsche Bank, wrote a letter to the Supreme Court of New York about one of the company's most troublesome clients. At issue was $640 million that client had borrowed in 2005 to fund construction of a new hotel in Chicago. The client had personally guaranteed the loan, but a few years later, the Great Recession devastated the economy, and he defaulted on his payment, with $330 million outstanding. Deutsche was seeking an immediate $40 million from the client, plus interest, legal fees and costs.The debtor in question:<b> Donald Trump</b>, the future president of the United States.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Instead of paying up, the New York real estate mogul countersued, claiming the 2008 crash was a force majeure event—one that Deutsche had helped precipitate.</span> Therefore, he argued, he wasn't obliged to pay back the money. Instead, he claimed Deutsche owed him money—about $3 billion in damages.In response, Molo drew up a withering document, contrasting Trump's frivolous writ with his long career of boasting about how rich he was:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump proclaims himself "the archetypal businessman, a deal-maker without peer."<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Trump has stated in court he is worth billions of dollars. In addition to substantial cash, personal investments and various other tangible assets, he maintains substantial interests in numerous extraordinary properties in New York and around the country.Those assets included hotel projects in seven U.S. cities, as well as in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Canada, Panama and Dubai, United Arab Emirates</span>, the lawyer noted. There were also casinos and golf courses scattered all over the world.The same day Trump argued that the Great Recession meant he didn't need to pay back his debts, he gave an interview to The Scotsman newspaper. After a two-year fight, he had gotten approval from the Scottish government for a new resort near Balmedie in Aberdeenshire—and he was thrilled. "The world has changed financially, and the banks are all in such trouble," he told the paper, "but the good news is that we are doing very well as a company, and we are in a very, very strong cash position." Trump said he didn't have any exposure to the stock market, had bought the Scottish land for cash and was now well placed to build "the world's greatest golf course." Two weeks later, George Sorial, a Trump Organization executive, assured The Scotsman that the tycoon had a billion dollars earmarked for the course.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If those statements weren't damning enough, Molo's affidavit cited the real estate tycoon's literary works, which summarized his insouciant attitude toward paying back other people's money. Trump, the attorney observed, provided extensive advice on how to do business in his half-dozen or so books. In How to Get Rich, Trump advises readers to use the courts to "be strategically dramatic." In Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and in Life, he boasts of how he "love[s] to crush the other side and take the benefits." Trump's strategy—honed during his terrible financial struggles with lenders during the 1990s—"was to turn it back on the banks…. I figured it was the bank's problem, not mine," Molo quoted him as saying, in connection with unpaid debt.As a result of these maneuvers, by the mid-2000s, U.S. financial institutions had stopped lending to Trump for his building projects. Deutsche was the only one still willing to work with him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump Denies Russia Collusion—Again and Again</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After Trump burned the bank, Deutsche shunned him as well. But Trump soon found a creative way to get off its blacklist—and return to solvency.'Are You Fucking Kidding Me?'Two years after Molo wrote his letter to the court, Trump settled his feud with the German bank. How he did it was bizarre: He paid back Deutsche with a massive lifeline—from Deutsche.</span>&nbsp;Only this time he eschewed its real estate team—which wanted nothing to do with him—and got a loan from its private wealth division. This group typically deals with high-net-worth individuals, not real estate transactions, but in 2010 it not only lent him the money he owed its real estate team but also reportedly gave Trump another $25 million to $50 million in credit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SEE MCFADDEN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Deutsche employees in New York were surprised by the bank's decision.</b>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When asked whether it was normal to give more money to a customer who was a bad credit risk and liked to sue, one former senior staff member at the bank put it succinctly: "Are you fucking kidding me?"</span>Over the next few years, the money kept rolling in for Trump. He took out two mortgages against a resort in Miami and a $170 million loan to finish his hotel in Washington, D.C.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to Bloomberg, by the time Trump was elected president of the United States in November 2016, he owed Deutsche around $300 million, an unprecedented debt for an incoming president. (His June financial disclosure showed he owes the bank $130 million, which is due in full in 2024.)The loans to Trump weren't the only abnormal behavior at Deutsche. Around the same time he received his new line of credit, the<b>&nbsp;bank was laundering money,</b>&nbsp;according to the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). Russian money. Billions of dollars that flowed from Moscow to London, then from London to New York—part of a scheme for which European and American regulators eventually punished the bank.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Was the timing of this illicit operation and the loans to Trump coincidental? Or evidence of something more sinister</b>—a critical chapter in the president's long history of suspicious business deals with Russian and post-Soviet oligarchs? In January, Trump claimed the former, tweeting in his usual bombastic style: "I have nothing to do with Russia—no deals, no loans, no nothing." But the president's refusal to accept the assessment of his intelligence agencies—that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election—has, among other things, fueled suspicions about his ties to Russia.Robert Mueller is now trying to find out the truth about those suspicions. The special counsel is investigating Russian interference—from the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to alleged coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow. So far, his team has charged key Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates with money laundering, as well as other offenses. He's also gotten two former advisers, Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos, to plead guilty to lying to the FBI and cooperate with the probe.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Now, however, Mueller appears to be following the money, trying to determine if Trump has a financial connection to Russia—one that might at least partly explain his behavior</b>. In December, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the&nbsp;<b>special counsel's office has subpoenaed Deutsche Bank</b>, demanding data and documents related to people or entities tied to the president and those close to him. The White House says the subpoena doesn't directly pertain to Trump or his family's accounts. But if the president has a dark Russian secret, the German banking giant's money-laundering scandal may be key to finding out what it is.Friends With Kremlin Benefits</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The story of how <b>Deutsche became embroiled in the Trump-Russia probe dates back to 2005, when the German lender bought UFG, a boutique investment bank, to acquire an entry point into Moscow. UFG's co-founder and chairman was Charles Ryan, a charming American banker with libertarian views. Ryan's partner was Boris Fyodorov,</b> a finance minister under former Russian President Boris Yeltsin. The bank straddled West and East, and was international and local.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The man behind Deutsche Bank's aggressive expansion was&nbsp;<b>Anshu Jain, its future co-CEO. He persuaded Ryan to stay on and head up Deutsche's new Moscow office, and he came up with a controversial strategy to tap into potentially huge Russian profits:</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>&nbsp;forge relationships with state partners. He wanted, in effect, to become friends with the Kremlin.</b>&nbsp;One way of doing this was to hire people with connections. Among them: Russia's most powerful banker, A<b>ndrey Kostin,</b> who had served as a Soviet diplomat in Sydney and London. (Intelligence sources think he was a KGB spy. Like many others who spoke to me for this story, they did so anonymously because they weren't authorized to talk to the press.) In the 1990s, he became head of <b>Vnesheconombank (VEB), a state development institution described by one former CIA analyst as the "Kremlin's cookie jar."&nbsp;</b></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Then Vladimir Putin made Kostin head of Vneshtorgbank (VTB), another state-run bank, after which Kostin expanded it to operate in 19 countries.VTB worked in many countries with minimal oversight, which meant the Kremlin could use it for espionage.</b> In 2005, VTB absorbed two banks traditionally used in Soviet times for spying and shifting currency to Western communist parties. These were the Moscow Narodny Bank, based in London, and Euro-bank, in Paris.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Meanwhile, Jain and Deutsche Bank recruited Kostin's 20-something son, Andrey. In spring of 2007, the young Kostin moved from a posting in London to Deutsche Bank in Moscow.Suddenly, Kostin's son got massive flows of business, </span>a high-level banking source told me. And it appeared his father may have helped: Deutsche did a series of lucrative trades with VTB. According to the source, the German bank's Moscow subsidiary began posting profits of $500 million to $1 billion a year, with VTB generating somewhere between 50 and 80 percent of all revenue.</font></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Jain came up with a controversial strategy to tap into potentially huge Russian profits: forge relationships with state partners. He wanted, in effect, to become friends with the Kremlin.</font></b></span></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Other investment banks based in Moscow were chagrined and suspected that Deutsche owed its success to its alliance with Russian state interests</b>. "They were doing some very curious things," says Christopher Barter, the CEO of Goldman Sachs Moscow at the time. "Nobody could make sense of their business. We found the nature and concentration of their business with VTB quite galling. N<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">obody else could touch VTB."Everyone in Moscow understood that VTB was more than a bank. It had ties to Russian intelligence. Putin's Federal Security Service (FSB) spy chief, </span>Nikolai Patrushev, and his successor, Alexander Bortnikov, both sent their sons to work at VTB. The bank's deputy chief executive, Vasily Titov, chaired the FSB's public council.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">VTB may have also had contacts with Trump associates, according to The New York Times. In November 2015, a few months after Trump announced he was running for president, one of his business partners,</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Felix Sater, wrote an email to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, saying VTB had agreed to bankroll a Trump Tower Moscow project. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump signed a letter of intent for the deal. When the project stalled, Cohen tried reaching out to Putin's spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, to help jump-start it. But it ultimately failed.</span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Kostin, the VTB banker, says he doesn't know Sater and never had any role in the real estate deal. "We never, ever heard about this case," he told the Times. "It's absolutely wrong information; it's absolutely&nbsp;<b>fake news.</b>"During those negotiations, Sater—the son of a Russian mafia boss—saw things differently. "Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it," he wrote to Cohen about the Trump Tower Moscow plans. "I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this, I will manage this process."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shady Trades and Endless Vodka Shots</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Well before Sater went looking for a deal there, the Russian capital was awash with petrodollars and opportunity</b>. At the start of the new millennium, Moscow was an alluring destination for Western expatriates. Especially for young single males. There were the devushki—long-legged Russian girls, some from Moscow, some newly arrived from the provinces—who were keen to meet foreigners and practice their English. There were the nightclubs, the parties, fueled by toasts and endless vodka shots. And the friendships, always more intense than those at home.But there was a dark side to this new Russia—as one of those attracted by its offer of riches discovered. Tim Wiswell grew up in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, about 100 miles northeast of New York City. He was more of a repatriate than an expat: His father had worked in oil and gas in Russia. When he was 17, Wiswell spent a year at the Anglo-American School in Moscow and then returned to the United States for college. In his mid-20s, Wiswell went back to Moscow and got a job with&nbsp;<b>Alfa, the private bank owned by the oligarch Mikhail Fridman.&nbsp;</b>From there, he moved to Deutsche Bank. By age 29, he was head of Russian equities.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He found a Russian girlfriend—Natalia Makosiy, an art historian whom he met at a Moscow dinner party and later married.In the wake of the 2007-2008 crash, profits from the bank's Russian business plummeted. Traders were now under pressure to increase revenue. But after Wiswell took over around 2009, business was suddenly improving. And Barter suspects that "something nefarious" was going on at&nbsp;<b>Deutsche during that time period.After the crash, Barter says, he was approached by "broker types, not very senior," seeking to do large</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>, unexplained volumes of trades with Goldman Sachs.&nbsp;</b>These were on behalf of major Russian clients. The brokers declined to identify their counterparties. Their names were concealed beneath "shell company after shell company," Barter says, making a due diligence impossible.&nbsp;</span>He turned this business down "in five seconds."The same entities approached Wiswell and company, and got better results. Between 2011 and February 2015, Wiswell presided over a money-laundering scheme run from the equities desk of Deutsche Bank's Moscow office, according to a report from the DFS, and more than $10 billion was shifted from Russia to the West.The method was simple but effective. In Moscow, a Russian client bought blue-chip Russian stocks from Deutsche Bank Moscow in companies like Gazprom or Sberbank. The payments were in rubles. The size of a typical order was $2 million to $3 million. Shortly afterward, a non-Russian "customer" sold exactly the same number of securities to Deutsche Bank in London, paying in dollars.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Deutsche Bank AG’s regional head office on Wall Street.] Deutsche Bank sued Donald Trump in 2008 for defaulting on a $640 million loan. Deutsche later bailed Trump out through its own private wealth division.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>There was no economic logic to these "mirror trades," the DFS report found. The buyers and sellers were ostensibly different, but in reality, one in the same.</b>&nbsp;At least 12 entities used the scheme to surreptitiously convert rubles into dollars. The money was interred in offshore accounts. Those involved moved billions out of one Deutsche location in Moscow to another location in New York through offshore territories such as Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands. There were nearly 6,000 of such transactions, and nobody in New York, London, Frankfurt or any other international financial centers seemed to notice.When outsiders raised concerns—like a European bank, for example—Wiswell swatted them aside. The DFS report said he told the European bank not to worry. Wiswell approved the trades with anonymous Russian clients. He "threatened" and browbeat his colleagues on several occasions, a New York regulator said, according to the report, "when it appeared they had not moved quickly enough to facilitate transactions."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Moscow, Wiswell's 20-person equities desk was made up of Russians and Americans. One of its duties was to keep clients happy. That might mean extravagant skiing trips and visits to elite nightclubs. One of Wiswell's business (and skiing) partners was Dmitry Perevalov, the owner of a Moscow fund called Lanturno. About seven years ago, for his 40th birthday, Perevalov flew a group of people on a private jet to Mauritius. The jet belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church's most important bishop, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, but Perevalov chartered it for the occasion. His guests stayed at the luxurious Four Seasons hotel in Anahita, on the east coast of the Indian Ocean island. Some invitees scarcely knew their host, a former bartender. Those who were his friends—including Wiswell—called him Dima.One guest who met Wiswell at the party described him as charismatic and charming, a tall, handsome, all-American guy.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This person also said Wiswell came across as a "major lightweight" in terms of banking and finance. "He had nothing special going for him. I remember him speaking pretty poor Russian. We wondered whether he was doing kosher business."Perevalov flew in a popular performer to crown his birthday celebration—the Russian rapper Timati, who gave a concert. Under a starry sky, guests danced to Timati's hit "Welcome to St. Tropez":Too much money in the bank accountHands in the airMake you scream and shout Drinks, private villas, waterskiing in the lagoon—everything was taken care of. "I was wondering: Who the fuck is paying for all this?" the guest told me. "It was crazy."Lightweight or not, Wiswell was getting rich.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the mirror trades were happening, Wiswell's wife became the owner of two offshore companies—one in the <b>British Virgin Islands, one in Cyprus</b>. In 2015, a counterparty paid $250,000 into her account. This was for "financial consulting." Similar payments, totaling $3.8 million, were made through two companies in Belize. These payments were "undisclosed compensation," the DFS found—"a bribe." Which bank cleared them?&nbsp;</font></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Russia’s most powerful banker, Kostin, had served as a Soviet diplomat in Sydney and London. (Intelligence sources think he was a KGB spy.) Vladimir Putin made Kostin head of state-run VTB Bank, after which Kostin expanded it to operate in 19 countries.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to journalist Ed Caesar, there were further payments made to the Wiswells. The idea of the money was "to hook you, so you are not going to do unexpected things," one Moscow broker told Caesar in an article published in The New Yorker. These payments were always made in cash and always delivered in a bag.The end of this scheme came in August 2015, when Deutsche Bank suspended Wiswell and then fired him. After that, he disappeared. There were Facebook postings from Southeast Asia and Bali, where the Wiswells went with their two small children. (He is now allegedly back in Moscow.) His lawyer, Ekaterina Dukhina, declined to comment on his case,&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">but in his wrongful-dismissal suit against Deutsche, Wiswell said he was merely the fall guy for the bank's wrongdoing. He also claimed that around 20 colleagues, including two senior managers in London, knew all about the trades.The scandal was a grievous blow to Deutsche Bank's reputation. And an expensive one. About 10 days before Trump's inauguration, the&nbsp;<b>DFS—which has the power to suspend any bank with a branch in New York—fined the bank $475 million.</b>&nbsp;London's Financial Conduct Authority imposed a £163 million ($218 million) penalty. (The Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York are still investigating the bank's role in the scandal.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The bank carried out an internal review, which didn't identify the Russians behind the scheme</b>. It's still unclear who they were or where the billions went. Or where the money came from in the first place.What is clear, however, from the DFS report and conversations with sources in Moscow is that a <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Kremlin bank, VTB, run by proxies of the FSB, had seemingly captured Deutsche Bank's Moscow outpost. </span>The German bank's London and New York divisions were economic beneficiaries of this arrangement, as they facilitated the illegal flight of capital by some well-connected Kremlin insiders.<b>While this was going on, Deutsche Bank in New York was lending hundreds of millions of dollars to the future American president, a man known to be litigious and a credit risk.&nbsp;</b>My Guardian colleague Nick Hopkins and I wanted to find out if Trump's loans and the money-laundering scandal were connected. But Deutsche Bank stonewalled us; its policy was to say nothing about its clients, including the president.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Russian Laundromat</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In late 2016, that question and others led Hopkins and me to a man now at the center of Mueller's inquiry: Christopher Steele.&nbsp;</b>This was before the world knew he was behind the famous dossier, raw intelligence alleging, among other things, that Russian intelligence had years of compromising information on Trump, some of it sexual in nature. Hopkins knew Steele, but neither of us were aware of what he was sitting on in that dossier.We met on a Thursday afternoon, weeks before Christmas, when London's streets were crowded with shoppers. Steele had agreed to chat over 4 o'clock tea. We tried a café and wine bar called Balls Brothers—and found a tucked-away table. I went to the bar and came back with drinks: beer for Steele, Coke for Nick, pot of tea for me.Steele clearly likes being in the shadows, away from publicity or fuss. In the world of corporate intelligence, the fewer people who know what you are doing, the better. "Have you heard of me?" he asked.I confessed I hadn't.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I knew most of the people in London who were focused on Russia, but not Steele."Good," he said. "That's how I like it."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>For the next 45 minutes or so, we asked Steele about Trump's connections to Moscow.&nbsp;</b>He offered helpful hints about following the money but little more.In addition to questions about Deutsche Bank, we inquired about another Russian money-laundering operation, one that involved Putin's cousin Igor. Between 2010 and 2014, Moscow bankers were sending cash out of the country through something called the Global Laundromat—a scheme that cleaned at least $20 billion, according to investigators in Moldova and the Balkans, though the true figure may be much greater.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is how it worked: Shell companies in the United Kingdom "lent" money to one another, at least on paper. Russian businesses underwrote these "loans." Company A would default on paying back Company B. Typically, a Moldovan citizen was involved. The companies would obtain a court judgment in Moldova asking the Russian firms to settle the debt.&nbsp;</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And voilà! The Russian businesses would legally transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to a bank in Moldova's capital, Chisinau.&nbsp;</b>From Chisinau, the money went to a <b>bank in Latvia, Trasta Komercbanka. </b>From there, the cash went everywhere, to 92 countries, much of it vanishing offshore.The Latvian bank required a corresponding Western financial institution to process its dollar-denominated transactions.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Most U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, refused to offer banking services to Trasta, given the city of Riga's reputation as a European money-laundering hub.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;<b>Only two Western banks agreed, according to Moldovan and Latvian investigators. Both were German: Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank</b>. Once again, Deutsche was the entry point for criminal Russian money into the global financial system, the investigators found. (The bank severed its relationship with Trasta shortly before Latvian officials shut down the bank in 2016 for money laundering.) According to the DFS, Deutsche was reluctant to classify Russia as a "high-risk" location for money laundering.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Sergei Gorkov, chairman of Vnesheconombank (VEB Bank), which Andrey Kostin had run and whom Putin had promoted<b style="">. Gorkov met directly with Jared Kushner</b>&nbsp;in New York.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Hopkins and I asked Deutsche Bank about the scandal, we were rebuffed. So we talked to current and former Deutsche Bank staff. According to one senior ex-employee, who worked in equities in Asia and New York<b>, the bank's problems went way beyond these scams. The 2008 crash hit Deutsche Bank hard, the employee said. In order to cover up holes in the balance sheet, a few members of staff took part in risky, complex and possibly illegitimate forms of finance.</b>These practices were extensive, the person alleged. They might have involved innovative and opaque ways of getting outside parties to underwrite risky loans, the banker added, using structures to disguise who ultimately are the lenders and the beneficiaries.Such impenetrable structures have led some to wonder whether Deutsche's unusual loans to Trump and its Russian money-laundering schemes were connected.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adding to the intrigue: the statements of Trump's own children. In May, for instance, golf writer James Dodson said that during an interview more than three years ago, Trump's son Eric boasted that his father's company had access to Russian money. "<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">We don't rely on American banks," Dodson said Trump told him.&nbsp;<b>"We have all the funding we need out of Russia." (Eric Trump later denied he made this claim.)</b>&nbsp;Years earlier, at a real estate conference in 2008,&nbsp;<b>Donald Trump Jr. said, "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.</b>" He later added, "We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In an interview with Prospect magazine, Richard Dearlove, the former head of British secret intelligence service MI6, summed up the suspicions surrounding the alleged connection between Trump, Russia and Deutsche Bank. "What lingers for Trump may be what deals—on what terms—he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money when others in the West would not lend to him.</span>"<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to our sources inside Deutsche Bank,<b>&nbsp;Trump's bid to become president made him a politically exposed person, or PEP. Banks scrutinize such individuals carefully because they're often targets for illicit financial schemes.&nbsp;</b>Deutsche reviewed its lending to Trump and his relatives. Its goal was to discover if there was a Russian connection to Trump's loans. The DFS also requested information from the bank about its dealings with Russia. The sources were vague about the review, who carried it out and what its precise conclusions were. But they insist that no trail to Moscow was ever discovered.Other sources suggest the review was cursory, but Deutsche hasn't released any information about it, so there's no way to evaluate either claim. Meanwhile, Trump refuses to release his tax filings, breaking decades of precedent.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Over the past year, U.S. lawmakers such as Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, </b>have urged the bank to privately hand over its internal review—along with information about Trump's accounts—but Deutsche declined to do so, citing privacy rules.Now, nearly a year after BuzzFeed published Steele's dossier, the bank is handing records over to Mueller, as the special counsel tries to figure out if there is a connection between the Russian laundromat and the president of the United States.They Went to Jared The special counsel's inquiry could also reach people in Trump's orbit. Many were clients of Deutsche Bank—and also credit risks.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Among them is Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, who is trying to salvage a massive—and reportedly imperiled—investment in 666 Fifth Avenue, a prominent piece of Manhattan real estate. His relationship with Deutsche emerged in 2013, when he apparently&nbsp;<b>ordered a flattering profile of Trump's wealth manager, Rosemary Vrablic, by his newspaper, The New York Observer</b>.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In a letter this spring to Bill Woodley, Deutsche Bank's U.S. CEO, Senator Chris Van Hollen expressed concerns about the bank's lending to Kushner, </b>who had a $25 million line of credit with the German institution. In October 2016, it loaned him $285 million. The cash was used to replace an existing loan on the old New York Times building, which Kushner had bought the previous year from Lev Leviev, a businessman from the former Soviet Union.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The bank made the loan at a time when<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Kremlin representatives were eager to speak to Trump's son-in-law, according to a timeline laid out in Kushner's testimony to Congress</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">. In April, he first met Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, when Trump gave his foreign policy speech at D.C.'s Mayflower Hotel—just a handshake and pleasantries, Kushner said.&nbsp;<b>Next came a meeting at Trump Tower with Natalia Veselnitskaya</b>, the Moscow lawyer who sat down with Kushner, Manafort and Trump Jr.</span> They talked about dirt on Hillary Clinton and repealing the Magnitsky Act, an Obama-era law that leveled sanctions against Russians accused of human rights abuses.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Then, on November 16, Kislyak got in touch again. By this point, it was clear that Kushner would become senior adviser to the president.There was another Kushner-Kislyak meeting, on December 1 at Trump Tower. Flynn, Trump's adviser, was present too, as Kushner made an unusual proposal: He asked Kislyak if it would be possible to set up a secret and secure communications channel between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin. The purpose, it seems, was to keep their conversations hidden from the outgoing Obama administration and U.S. intelligence. Could this be done, Kushner wondered, by using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States? The inquiry was staggeringly naïve.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Kushner or Flynn were to drop by the Russian Embassy, U.S. intelligence would certainly notice.The FBI hadn't bugged that conversation but learned of it when Kislyak reported to his superiors back in Moscow.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> According to FBI intercepts of those Russian communications,&nbsp;<b>Kislyak was taken aback by Kushner's request</b>. It was unlikely Moscow would allow any American to use its encrypted networks. The Trump transition team said nothing about these secret negotiations. One person who knew the details was so alarmed he sent The Washington Post an anonymous note about it, explaining what had happened.Russia, it seemed, didn't need to expend much effort to get close to Trump's aides.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>&nbsp;Kislyak came up with a suggestion of his own</b>, according to Kushner's testimony. Perhaps Kushner would like to meet with another person from Moscow, someone with "a direct relationship" to Putin?&nbsp; During a meeting between Kislyak and Kushner's assistant, Avi Berkowitz, on December 12, they agreed on the details of this meeting. Putin's emissary turned out to be a banker, or, more accurately, a banker-spy. His name was Sergey Gorkov, and he was the head of VEB, the state development bank, which Kostin had run, and whose board Putin had chaired during his four years as prime minister.&nbsp;</span>He had trained in the 1990s at the FSB's academy before joining energy company Yukos and state-run Sberbank. Like VTB, Sberbank was allegedly an arm of the Kremlin. It was the official sponsor of the 2013 Miss Universe contest in Moscow, attended by Trump and<b>&nbsp;hosted by Emin Agalarov, the pop-star son of Aras Agalarov, who worked with Trump to bring the pageant to Russia</b>. Eight days after the contest,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Sberbank announced it was lending Agalarov $1.3 billion to finance new projects. One of those under consideration was Trump Tower Moscow. In February 2016, Putin promoted Gorkov to VEB chief.</span></font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Deutsche Bank loaned Jared Kushner $285 million to replace an existing loan on the old New York Times building, which Kushner had bought from Lev Leviev, a businessman from the former Soviet Union. The bank made the loan at a time when Kremlin representatives were eager to speak to Trump’s son-in-law.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The bank's mission was to support Moscow's political programs. It provided capital to build facilities at the Sochi Olympics and fund secessionist rebels in eastern Ukraine</b>. These top-down ventures lost money. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">VEB had large debts. The United States had included <b>VEB, VTB and Sberbank in the sanctions it passed in 2014</b> after Putin annexed Crimea. And Gorkov's job was to restore the bank's fortunes</span>.Gorkov was well prepared for his meeting with Kushner. He was, after all, a graduate of the Dzerzhinsky Higher School, a KGB training center. He flew in from Moscow bearing gifts. Among them: soil from the town of Novogrudok in northwest Belarus, where Kushner's paternal grandmother grew up. In 1941, the German army arrived, and the town's Jewish inhabitants were rounded up and forced to live and work in an agricultural college. Around half were executed. The survivors dug a tunnel, and in September 1943 they crawled out, fleeing into the forest.This information and much more would have been included in the <b>FSB's Kushner file.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>&nbsp;Gorkov's presents were chosen to remind the young Trump adviser of his origins in a part of the world that once belonged to the Soviet Union</b>, and of his spiritual roots. (<b>This subtlety was wasted. In his written testimony to Congress, Kushner said Putin's messenger had given him a "bag of dirt." It came from "Nvgorod," he wrote, spelling his grandmother's birthplace incorrectly.)</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This meeting occurred on December 13, and according to Kushner, Gorkov introduced himself and "made some statements about the Russian economy." The banker said he was friendly with Putin, expressed disappointment about the state of U.S.-Russian relations under President Barack Obama and "his hopes for a better relationship" in the future, Kushner told congressional committees.</span>There was no discussion of lifting sanctions, Kushner said. Nor was he offered any commercial deals. Kushner characterized the encounter as brief, meaningless. But there's no official record of what was said in the meeting, so this is hard to verify. After all, it was difficult to discuss the Russian economy without mentioning its depressed state. Gorkov then flew directly from New York to Japan, where Putin was attending a summit. He would likely have reported the details of the meeting then.Kushner's official account to Congress on his dealings with Kremlin representatives is 11 pages long.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It's a flat, sterile document, clearly reviewed by his lawyers. In his version, there was no wrongdoing, just a series of inconsequential meetings during a hectic campaign. Kushner said in written evidence to Congress that he even forgot Kislyak's name. There was no secret channel. Nor did he rely on "Russian funds" to finance his business</span>. In short, a nothing burger with Russian dressing.Despite these protestations,<b> it's clear Russian intelligence found it easy to access Trump's inner circle. Ambassadors, lawyers, bankers...all made their way to Trump Tower in 2016. All were welcomed and listened to. Gorkov was part of them, but the cast also included Kislyak, Veselnitskaya and the Agalarovs and other unknown actors working behind the scenes.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Targeting Kushner was logical. He was soon to become a federal employee. His White House portfolio included tax policy, the military and international affairs. In a protean White House—where anyone could be fired—Kushner's status as the president's son-in-law made him unfireable.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During his meetings with Russians, Kushner apparently said nothing about Moscow's attack on American democracy during the presidential campaign, nothing about hacking the Democratic National Committee or circulating fake news on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. He also kept his meetings with the Russians secret. So did the Trump administration. In his security clearance form, Kushner didn't mention Gorkov or Kislyak. (Kushner said this was an accident, an administrative error by an underling.)The American public found out about these meetings only because of a steady stream of leaks—leaks that would eventually offer Mueller some important clues.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ursa Major</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, the questions Mueller is asking seem to be the same questions that led us to meet with Christopher Steele last year. Namely: Was Trump hiding a connection to Russian money? And if so, was Moscow blackmailing him with that information? And how?On the campaign trail—and well before he became a candidate—Trump's praise of Putin was effusive and unwavering. He called him a strong leader and claimed they'd spoken and gotten along well. His fidelity to Russia's president has continued in the White House, even as he lambasted other world leaders, turned on aides and allies, fired the head of the FBI and publicly humiliated his attorney general. Shunning Putin would have been the savvy political move, but he has refused to do so.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robert Mueller, then FBI director, testifies during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee on Capitol Hill, on May 16, 2013. Mueller appears to be following the money, trying to determine if Trump has a financial connection to Russia.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republicans have criticized Steele's dossier because the DNC and Clinton campaign helped pay for it.&nbsp;<b>But the document offers a compelling explanation for the president's unusual behavior vis-à-vis Russia. First, there was Moscow's alleged kompromat operation against Trump going back three decades. If the president had indulged in compromising behavior, whether sexual or otherwise, Putin likely knew of it. Second,&nbsp;</b>there was the&nbsp;<b>cash from Russian oligarchs that went into Trump's real estate ventures</b>—and the prospect of a lucrative deal to build a hotel and tower in Moscow, a project that was still being negotiated as Trump addressed adoring crowds on the campaign trial.&nbsp;<b>Finally, there were the Deutsche Bank loans that rescued Trump after the crash.</b>&nbsp;They had come from a bank that was simultaneously laundering billions of dollars of Russian money. (Though parts of Steele's dossier remain unverified, some of his claims have been substantiated. The former spy told his friends he believes the document is about 70 to 90 percent accurate.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And then there are the people in the president's inner circle. Wherever you look, there is a link to Russia. His pick for secretary of state? Rex Tillerson, a figure known and trusted in Moscow, and recipient of the country's Order of Friendship. Former national security adviser? Flynn, a beneficiary of undeclared Russian money. Campaign manager? Manafort, longtime confidant to ex–Soviet oligarchs. Foreign policy adviser? Carter Page, whom Russia tried to recruit as a spy. Commerce secretary? Wilbur Ross, an entrepreneur with Russia-connected investments. Personal lawyer? Cohen, who sent emails to Putin's press secretary. Business partner? Sater, who sent Flynn a plan to lift Russian sanctions. And so on<b>.It was almost as if Putin had picked Trump's Cabinet</b>. The U.S. president, of course, did the choosing, but the pattern of all these individuals, and their alignment with Russian interests, forms a constellation. Call it Ursa Major. A big Russian bear Robert Mueller is now hunting—at Deutsche Bank and beyond.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article was adapted from Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Trump Win by Luke Harding</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dmn no lnx chart</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>GOP campaigns took $7.35 million from oligarch linked to Russia</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">FILED UNDERCOMMENTARY&nbsp; AT AUG 2017 SHARE</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Profile image for Ruth May</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ruth May, Contributor</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Connect with Ruth May Email</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Editor's note: Ruth May wrote this column in August 2017. Click here for an extensive update.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Party loyalty is often cited as the reason that GOP leaders have not been more outspoken in their criticism of President Donald Trump and his refusal to condemn Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. Yet there may be another reason that top Republicans have not been more vocal in their condemnation. Perhaps it's because they have their own links to the Russian oligarchy that they would prefer go unnoticed.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Donald Trump and the political action committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and John McCain accepted $7.35 million in contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">During the 2015-2016 election season,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;<b>Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard "Len" Blavatnik</b> contributed $6.35 million to leading Republican candidates and incumbent senators. Mitch McConnell was the top recipient of Blavatnik's donations, collecting $2.5 million for his GOP Senate Leadership Fund under the names of two of Blavatnik's holding companies, Access Industries and AI Altep Holdings,</span>&nbsp;according to Federal Election Commission documents and OpenSecrets.org.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">How Putin's proxies helped funnel millions into GOP campaigns</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Marco Rubio's</b> Conservative Solutions PAC and his Florida First Project received $1.5 million through Blavatnik's two holding companies. Other high dollar recipients of funding from Blavatnik were PACS representing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at $1.1 million,&nbsp;<b>South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham at $800,000,</b>&nbsp;Ohio Governor John Kasich at $250,000 and Arizona Senator John McCain at $200,000.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In January, Quartz reported that <b>Blavatnik donated another $1 million to Trump's Inaugural Committee. </b>Ironically, the shared address of Blavatnik's companies is directly across the street from Trump Tower on 5th Avenue in New York.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Len Blavatnik, considered to be one of the richest men in Great Britain, holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and the U.K. He is known for his business savvy and generous philanthropy, but not without controversy.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 2010, Oxford University drew intense criticism for accepting a donation of 75 million pounds from Blavatnik for a new school of government bearing his name. Faculty, alumni and international human rights activists claimed the university was selling its reputation and prestige to Putin's associates.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Blavatnik's relationships with Russian oligarchs close to Putin, particularly Oleg Deripaska</b>, should be worrisome for Trump and the six GOP leaders who took Blavatnik's money during the 2016 presidential campaign. Lucky for them no one has noticed. Yet.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>How some evangelical Christians are complicit in the cruelty of politics</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Oleg Deripaska</b>&nbsp;is the founder and majority owner of RUSAL, the world's second largest aluminum company, based in Russia. Len Blavatnik owns a significant stake in RUSAL and served on its Board until November 10, 2016, two days after Donald Trump was elected.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Deripaska controls RUSAL with a 48 percent majority stake through his holding company, EN+ Group, and the Russian government owns 4.35 percent stake of EN+ Group through its second-largest state owned bank, VTB. VTB was exposed in the Panama papers in 2016for facilitating the flow of billions of dollars to offshore companies linked to Vladimir Putin and is under sanctions by the U.S. government.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Cyprus is at the center of a circle of corruption surrounding Trump</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Deripaska has been closely connected to the Kremlin since he married into Boris Yeltsin's family in 2001, which literally includes him in the Russian clan known as "The Family."According to the Associated Press, starting in 2006, Deripaska made annual payments of $10 million to Paul Manafort through the Bank of Cyprus to advance Putin's global agenda.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Len Blavatnik's co-owner in RUSAL is his long-time business partner, Viktor Vekselberg, another Russian oligarch with close ties to&nbsp; Putin. Blavatnik and Vekselberg hold their 15.8 percent joint stake in RUSAL in the name of Sual Partners, their offshore company in the Bahamas. Vekselberg also happens to be the largest shareholder in the Bank of Cyprus.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Another oligarch with close ties to Putin, Dmitry Rybolovlev, owns a 3.3 percent stake in the Bank of Cyprus. Rybolovlev is known as "Russia's Fertilizer King" and has been in the spotlight for several months as the purchaser of Trump's 60,000 square-foot mansion in Palm Beach. Rybolovlev bought the estate for $54 million more than Trump paid for the property at the bottom of the crash in the U.S. real estate market.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The convoluted web that links Putin's oligarchs to Trump's political associates and top Republicans is difficult to take in.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump and Putin have a common approach to governance. They rely heavily on long-term relationships and family ties. While there have been tensions between Putin and Deripaska over the years, the Kremlin came to Deripaska's rescue in 2009 when he was on the verge of bankruptcy by providing a $4.5 billion emergency loan through state-owned<b> Vnesheconombank (VEB)</b>, where Putin is chair of the advisory board.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">VEB, known as President Putin's "pet bank," is now in crisis after sanctions applied by Europe and U.S. in 2014 have isolated it from the international banks that were the sources of its nearly $4 billion in hard currency loans that, according to Bloomberg, mature this year and in 2018.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Russia's international currency reserves are near a 10-year low, which has put further pressure on the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;president of VEB,</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Sergey Gorkov, to find sources of international rescue capital. Notably, it was Gorkov who met secretly with Jared Kushner in December at Trump Tower. Kushner's failure to report the meeting with Gorkov has drawn the attention of the Senate intelligence committee that now wants to question Kushner about the meeting.</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ruth May is a business professor at the University of Dallas and an expert on the economies of Russia and Ukraine. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News. Twitter: @ruthcmay</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CORRECTION, 12:11 p.m., August 7: The headline on an earlier version of this column incorrectly said Blavatnik is Russian. He was born in Urkraine during the Soviet era.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">An earlier version of this column used the name Leonid "Len" Blavatnik. He changed his first name to Leonard.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The column has also been updated to remove language describing the online presentation of a press release about Blavatnik resigning from the RUSAL board because it lacked context.&nbsp;</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/how-mitch-mcconnells-weak-kneed-cowardice-makes-him-the-perfect-target-for-perfect-for-agents-of-power-and-influence/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/how-mitch-mcconnells-weak-kneed-cowardice-makes-him-the-perfect-target-for-perfect-for-agents-of-power-and-influence/</a></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">oligarch $ to McConn</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The Chao Connection</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Though third in this list because their influence is the least known and understood, the Chao family had by far the most significant effect on McConnell’s personal life and career. Thanks to second wife Elaine and her family, McConnell became a millionaire many times over and forged ties with contacts at the highest echelons of Chinese government and business.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Elaine Chao’s father is shipping magnate, James Chao.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The South China Morning Post takes up the story.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He ordered two ships to be built at the state-owned shipyard in Shanghai during Mr Jiang’s tenure as mayor. He started meeting Mr Jiang regularly, including three months after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, when most other American businessmen were avoiding the leadership. Later Mr Chao’s business ties to Beijing would deepen as he started chartering his ships to mainland giants, such as Cosco and Sinotrans</span>.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As McConnell’s acquaintance with Elaine Chao developed into a serious relationship, contributions began to pour into his campaign from the Chao family and their business associates. Their wedding ensured that the spigot was never turned off.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ms Chao and Mr McConnell married in February 1993, and in December the pair met Mr Jiang in Beijing, joined by Ms Chao’s father. Mr McConnell was the second Republican Senator to meet Mr Jiang since Tiananmen, a move which helped him build ties with senior mainland envoys in the US.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Through the Chao family, McConnell cultivated friends in very high places — Mr Jiang is none other than<b>&nbsp;Jiang Zemin, Secretary of the Communist Party</b>&nbsp;from 1989 to 2002 and President of the People’s Republic of China from 1993 to 2003.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">There’s little if any doubt that this prompted Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to appoint McConnell as chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for foreign operations and export financing in 1994. Certainly members of the US-China Business Council were impressed, and their corporate donations flowed freely into McConnell’s campaign coffers.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The change in his fortunes attracts the billionaire donors and McConnell is catapulted to rising star status.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In Shanghai on <b>May 22, 2014, Chinese and Russian firms establish a number of partnerships. Among them are these two:</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>the Russian State Development Bank and the Export Import Bank of China sign an agreement on a $500 million credit line to finance projects in Russia</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>the Kremlin-controlled VTB Bank and the Bank of China</b> ratify a partnership in investment banking, trade finance and capital markets transactions, and inter-bank lending</span>.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The following year, the<b> Export Import Bank of China (now partnered with the Russian State Development Bank)</b> extends a $37.5 million loan to the Chao family shipping company, Foremost, to finance the construction of two bulk carriers being built by the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC). Among those present for the signing of the deal are James Chao (Chairman of Foremost) with his daughters, Angela (Deputy Chairman) and Elaine.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Seven months later in May 2016,<b> Elaine’s sister Angela Chao is elected to the Board of Directors at the Bank of China — now partnered with Russia’s VTB bank </b>which has been operating under <b>US sanctions since 2014</b>.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">So not only does McConnell have links to China via the Chao connection, both he and the Chao family interlink with the Russians.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fast forward to 2018: McConnell retains his position as senate tyrant after the midterms; Elaine Chao is the Secretary of Transportation in Trump’s cabinet, and the Chao family maintains extensive contacts and business investments in China including a seat on the Board of the Bank of China which is partnered with the Russian VTB Bank that is part-owned by oligarch Oleg Deripaska who shares ownership in Rusal with Viktor Vekselberg whose business partner Len Blavatnik donated $3.5million to McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.”</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">~ Sir Walter Scott</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On June 7 CNBC reports:</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Revelations about Russia’s meddling in America’s 2016 presidential election have pushed Congress to turn up the heat on China, as it seeks to tamp down foreign influence on American institutions.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require an unclassified interagency report on Chinese political influence operations.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That must have jolted McConnell, especially when Marco Rubio declared that he would follow suit.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A search of the Library of Congress Roll Call database found that Chris Smith’s bill, HR6010, was introduced on June 5 whereupon it was referred for further action to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. It never surfaced again.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">There’s no record of Marco Rubio introducing a similar bill in the senate. His effort was very effectively thwarted</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It should now be clear that McConnell has far more to worry about than his upcoming re-election and whatever the hell Trump’s base are thinking. He has more strings attached to his person than an intricate marionette and those controlling the strings are not known for being even-tempered, understanding or forgiving.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It’s little wonder then that he’s blocked every bipartisan bill to protect the Special Counsel’s investigation. Even when the latest bill was strongly and vociferously supported by members of his own caucus, he refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote. It’s hardly surprising when you realise how enmeshed he is in corruption. He must be terrified of being caught — so the last person he’d want to protect is Special Counsel Robert Mueller.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>This also explains why he was so aggressively opposed to President Obama going public with warnings regarding Russia’s attack on American democracy in 2016</b>. If prior to that meeting he was blissfully unaware that USIC was onto the Russians, the suddenness of that unwelcome knowledge, and the realisation of his own jeopardy, must have come as one helluva shock. He wasn’t protecting his party or the GOP presidential nominee when he refused his consent, he was desperate to protect himself.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">And that brings us back to why McConnell is perpetuating this shutdown. Some of those pulling his strings may also be involved at some level with Trump’s perfidy. If protecting himself means sticking with Trump then McConnell’s heightened sense of self preservation is going to kick in hard.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But it’s likely to be more complicated than that. For all his posturing, McConnell’s inadequacy renders him weak and his weakness is exacerbated by fear. Running home to Kentucky rather than confronting the expanding disaster in DC is both a physical as well as symbolic attempt to hide from it all.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Weakness, especially a sense of inadequacy, breeds vindictiveness. If he can’t take his dislike and disdain for Trump out on the man himself then he’ll turn his attention to a more acceptable and accessible target: Democrats. Particularly House Democrats. Their vow to conduct real oversight must have really intensified his stress levels. But he has one weapon he can use against them, he can block everything in the senate that they pass in the House. It’s petty and vindictive but that’s how low he’s going.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Nor does he care about the hardships being faced by furloughed employees. The numbers of those affected are already staggering. While there’s no precise accounting of them all, the guesstimate has to take into account the 800,000 furloughed plus their families, plus those in private businesses which depend on working government agencies, plus their families. Already the number must be between 3 and 4 million. By the end of this week, more sections will shut down as their funding also runs out.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">No end in sight.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Because the tyrant in charge of the senate isn’t just flawed, isn’t just inadequate to the enormity of the situation, he’s also corrupt. No honorable man would subject his fellow citizens to such privation and misery if he had the power to prevent it.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Addison Mitchell McConnell is without conscience, without benevolence and without honor.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/heres-why-trumps-proposed-moscow-project-even-dirtier-it-looks">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/heres-why-trumps-proposed-moscow-project-even-dirtier-it-looks</a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Weirdly, it kind of makes sense that Donald Trump's supporters on Fox News and elsewhere are brushing off last week’s revelations about the Trump Tower Moscow deal as a “nothingburger.”</font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This knee-jerk&nbsp;reaction makes sense because Trump loyalists clearly haven’t been following the ongoing reporting on this story, even though Rupert Murdoch’s own paper, the Wall Street Journal, has been one of many top-shelf publications covering the Trump-Russia saga in granular detail. Simply put: The Red Hats are just now catching up to speed with a story that’s been years in the making. So perhaps their nothingburger meme is just a reflection of being slow on the uptake.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OK, that’s admittedly a generous analysis of what we’re hearing from Trump’s loyalists, especially after it became clear that Trump and his company were engaged in a colossal real estate deal to build what literally would’ve been the tallest building in Russia, with Vladimir Putin as a principal, and that this was negotiated during the same period of time&nbsp;when Putin was engaged in a pervasive military intelligence cyberattack against the United States, with the explicit intention of helping Trump become president.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The most realistic analysis is that Trumpers are being deliberately ignorant about a vast series of crimes with our current president at the center of a nefarious confederacy that could easily be defined as the Trump crime family. This is absolutely a&nbsp;somethingburger, stacked high with all the fixin’s -- and we haven’t really seen the lion's share of the details yet.</font></font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><interaction data-token="5b96855f8198b4e625350260" data-context="true" data-tags="" data-fallback="true" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></font></font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump supporters have been&nbsp;belittling the news as just another real estate deal by a real estate mogul: Nothing to see here, they say. This would be not unlike calling the&nbsp;U.S. Civil War just another case of “regional tensions.” They fail to grasp that the president repeatedly lied about his ties to Russia, and that he was doing so because he was obviously trying to keep this deal from being revealed to his&nbsp;Republican voters&nbsp;during the&nbsp;Republican primary&nbsp;season in 2015 and 2016.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Even a cursory glance at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000006240299/trump-russia-denials.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">record of denials</a>&nbsp;shows that Trump and his surrogates vehemently rebuffed any and all suggestions about business with Russia, as well as earlier reports about Trump Tower Moscow -- now known as the “Moscow Project” -- before it was finally tossed to the back burner in June of 2016&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(as far as we know). Anyone existing in the real world can see how the deal and its&nbsp;secrecy, then and now, exposed Trump to potential blackmail by the Russian government, which itself faced a series of economically crippling sanctions by the U.S. and our allies. Consequently, Trump was and is beholden to Putin, with the Moscow Project as at least one of the Russian anvils dangling over the president’s head. And we still don’t know whether the Moscow Project is set to be reanimated after Trump finally leaves office. It could be that Trump is carrying a torch for the project until all this blows over.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But it wasn’t just the overall hush-hush nature of the Moscow Project that poses such a threat to American national security. The true smoking gun at the center of the Trump Tower Moscow prong of the Russia story happens to be a <b>Russian bank known as VTB</b>. Those who haven’t been following the day-to-day developments (hello, Red Hats) might not know that 60 percent of <b>VTB is controlled by the Kremlin.</b></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It turns out that one of Trump’s many shady operatives and hangers-on,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/06/23/who-is-felix-sater-meet-the-shady-russian-investor-who-may-be-a-centerpiece-of-the-investigation/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Felix Sater</a>,&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a Russian-born New Yorker with an office in Trump Tower, arranged financing for the Moscow Project. The money was to be put up by VTB, and Trump himself signed a letter of intent to build the skyscraper, complete with a spa facility for Ivanka Trump’s brand and a $50 million penthouse for Putin (priorities, priorities).</span></font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VTB’s financing appears to have been locked in around October 2015, while Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, was busily deploying its attack against the Democrats and the forthcoming American elections.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What the&nbsp;nothingburger&nbsp;crowd won’t say out loud is that</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> VTB has been subject to American sanctions&nbsp;<a href="https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl2590.aspx" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">since July 2014</a>,&nbsp;after Putin invaded Ukraine and seized Crimea in the wake of the Sochi Olympics. Simply put, it’s illegal for any Americans or American corporations, including the Trump Organization, to do business with VTB and other entities under sanction. Trump, Cohen and Sater did it anyway.</span></font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No wonder Trump and his people wanted to keep the deal secret. Sanctions were potentially violated, and Putin appears to have been bribed with a $50 million apartment. If that’s a nothingburger, I’d hate to see what an actual burger looks like.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This whole arrangement is amplified by the fact that Trump inexplicably admitted last week that the Moscow Project was a real thing, while also not denying any of the related details. To repeat: Trump confessed to the existence of the deal. The Moscow Project, therefore, isn’t “fake news.” The president has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/11/29/trump-cohen-guilty-plea-mueller-weak-person-vpx.cnn" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">confirmed it</a>.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By way of context, couple Trump’s remarkable confession with the rest of Trump’s links to Russia including&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-boot-trump-russian-connection-20160725-snap-story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">financing</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;for various Trump projects; campaign personnel links to Putin and other Russia oligarchs -- specifically, convicted hired goons like Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn; alleged links between&nbsp;</span><a href="https://therealdeal.com/2018/10/09/felix-sater-on-money-laundering-at-trump-properties-i-think-he-just-didnt-care/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Russian cash and the Trump Soho property</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">;&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump’s direct link to oligarch&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/arts/design/dmitry-rybolovlev-monaco-investigation.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Dmitry Rybolovlev</a>, who purchased a moldy Trump property in Palm Beach at a significant markup; and so on -- all of which render Trump’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000006240299/trump-russia-denials.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">repeated denials</a>&nbsp;intensely laughable</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.&nbsp;We can expect to hear many more details from Robert Mueller once all this reaches a public conclusion.</span></font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is publicly altering American foreign policy toward Russia in order to suit his own financial best interests. But it could be far worse than that. Trump could also be ensnared by Russian&nbsp;<em>kompromat</em>, forcing him to enact policies favorable to Putin and Putin alone (the lifting of sanctions and the penalties in the Magnitsky Act, primarily). Anyone beating the nothingburger meme to death right now isn’t seeing the harrowing big picture -- the criminal and national security ramifications of Trump’s&nbsp;ill-advised alliance with a nation whose government is run by thugs, assassins and thieves. If you’re still unconvinced, go ahead and replace every instance of “Trump” in this article with “Obama” and then tell us again how it’s all a big nothingburger.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ref</font></font></font></div><div><h2 style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); text-indent: -5px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Announcement of Additional Treasury Sanctions on Russian Financial Institutions and on a Defense Technology Entity</font></font></font></h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);" /><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">7/29/2014</span></font></font></font><div id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl06_ctl00__ControlWrapper_RichHtmlField" class="ms-rtestate-field" aria-labelledby="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl06_ctl00_label" style="margin: 0px; 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margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;"><em>&nbsp;</em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><em>Actions Target Three Russian State-Owned Banks, and one Russian State-Owned Defense Technology Entity</em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><em>&nbsp;</em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;"><strong>WASHINGTON&nbsp;</strong>– In response to Russia’s continued efforts to destabilize eastern Ukraine, the U.S. Department of the Treasury today imposed prohibitions on additional entities operating within the financial services sector of the Russian economy pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13662.&nbsp; Specifically, Treasury imposed sanctions that prohibit U.S. persons from providing new financing to three major Russian financial institutions, limiting their access to U.S. capital markets.&nbsp; Treasury today has also designated one Russian state-owned defense technology firm pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13661.&nbsp; These measures coincide with actions taken to suspend U.S. export credit and development finance to Russia.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">"In light of Russia’s continuing support for separatists in Ukraine, we took additional steps today to further increase financial pressure on the Russian government,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen.&nbsp; "These actions, along with actions announced today by the European Union, significantly increase the costs to Russia for its efforts to undermine Ukraine's sovereignty.&nbsp; We are prepared to continue to expand these sanctions if Russia refuses to change course."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px; break-after: avoid;"><em>&nbsp;</em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px; break-after: avoid;"><em>Prohibition of Certain Types of Activities with Three Russian State-Owned Financial Institutions Pursuant to E.O. 13662</em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px; break-after: avoid;"><em>&nbsp;</em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">Treasury today imposed measures prohibiting U.S. persons and persons within the United States from transacting in, providing financing for, or otherwise dealing in new debt of longer than 90 days maturity or new equity for Bank of Moscow, Russian Agricultural Bank, and VTB Bank OAO, their property, or their interests in property.&nbsp; As a practical matter, this step will severely limit these banks’ access to medium- and long-term U.S. dollar financing, and will impose additional significant costs on the Russian Government for its continued activities in Ukraine.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">We have not blocked the property or interests in property of these banks, nor prohibited transactions with them beyond these specific restrictions.&nbsp; However, the scope of prohibited activities and the number of sanctioned financial institutions may be expanded under the authority of E.O. 13662 if we decide to do so.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;"><strong>Bank of Moscow</strong>&nbsp;is a Russian state-owned financial institution—through its parent bank, VTB Bank OAO—with 148 sub-offices located in all administrative districts of Moscow.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;"><strong>Russian Agricultural Bank (A.K.A. Rosselkhozbank)&nbsp;</strong>is a state-owned bank, which acts as a Russian government agent offering a full range of financial services to clients.&nbsp; With a network of 78 regional branches and more than 1,500 additional offices covering Russia, it has the second-largest regional branch network in the Russia.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style="">VTB Bank OAO</strong>&nbsp;is a state-owned bank, and, together with its subsidiaries (“the VTB Group”), is Russia’s second-largest banking group.&nbsp; The VTB Group has more than 1,600 offices in Russia, and operates more than 30 banks in 23 countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa.&nbsp; The VTB Group offers financial services including retail, corporate and investment banking; brokering and other stock-market services; insurance; asset management for pension and unit funds; and leasing.&nbsp; VTB Bank’s shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange and on the London Stock Exchange.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;"><em>&nbsp;</em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">Imposition of Sanctions on One Russian State-Owned Firm Pursuant to E.O. 13661 for Operating in the Arms or Related Materiel Sector in Russia</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">Treasury today has also designated and blocked the assets of United Shipbuilding Corporation, pursuant to E.O. 13661, for operating in the arms or related materiel sector in Russia.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;"><strong>United Shipbuilding Corporation</strong>, which was established pursuant to a March 21, 2007 presidential order, is a Russian state-owned company that manufactures, among other things, ordnance and accessories, and is engaged in shipbuilding, repair, and maintenance.&nbsp; United Shipbuilding Corporation designs and constructs ships for the Russian Navy and is the largest shipbuilding company in Russia.&nbsp; This addition expands upon the list of eight defense technology firms designated on July 16.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">As a result of today’s action under E.O. 13661, any assets of the entity designated that are within U.S. jurisdiction must be frozen.&nbsp; In addition, transactions by U.S. persons or within the United States involving the entity designated today under E.O. 13661 are generally prohibited.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); margin: 0in 0in 0pt; padding: 0px;">For identifying information on the entities named in this release, please click&nbsp;<em><u><a href="http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTQwNzI5LjM0NTY1MjMxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE0MDcyOS4zNDU2NTIzMSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE2OTI2Mzg4JmVtYWlsaWQ9ZWxpemFiZXRoLmJvdXJhc3NhQHRyZWFzdXJ5LmdvdiZ1c2VyaWQ9ZWxpemFiZXRoLmJvdXJhc3NhQHRyZWFzdXJ5LmdvdiZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&100&&&http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20140729.aspx" class="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">here<span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></a></u></em></div></div></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/heres-how-shady-russian-cash-flowed-through-trumps-toronto-hotel-and-ultimately-back-president" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/heres-how-shady-russian-cash-flowed-through-trumps-toronto-hotel-and-ultimately-back-president</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/trumptoronto" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">major investigation conducted by the&nbsp;<em>Financial Times</em></a>&nbsp;reveals how<b>&nbsp;shady Russian cash flowed through the financial of President Donald Trump’s Toronto hotel — and, ultimately, back to the president himself.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In particular, the report zeroes in on actions taken by Alex Shnaider, the Russian-Canadian billionaire who served as Trump’s business partner in the construction of Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the&nbsp;<em>Financial Times’</em>&nbsp;reporting, Shnaider in 2010 made a secret $100 million payment to a group of so-called “introducers” who were representing the Kremlin. The goal of the payment to these “introducers” was to pave the way for Shnaider’s group to sell off its stake in the Zaporizhstal steel mill in eastern Ukraine. m&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Shnaider eventually succeeded in selling off the steel mill with the help of Russian state bank&nbsp;<b>Vnesheconombank (VEB)&nbsp;</b>— and the&nbsp;<em>Financial Times’</em>&nbsp;reporting raises questions about whether the deal would have gotten financing from VEB without the massive payment to the “introducers.”</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">More importantly, writes the&nbsp;<em>Financial Times</em>, “legal filings in a recent commercial dispute between Shnaider and his business partner raised the possibility that some of the money could have ended up with Russian government officials.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>If the payments made by Shnaider did wind up in the hands of Russian officials, then the deal would likely be considered an illegal bribe under Canadian law.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After the sale of the steel mill, Shnaider used $40 million of the proceeds to further finance Trump’s Toronto hotel. Of that, a further $4 million went to the Trump Organization in the form of licensing fees.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tom Keatinge, a former JPMorgan banker who now specializes in financial crime at London’s Royal United Services Institute, tells the&nbsp;<em>Financial Times</em>&nbsp;that,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;if the initial $100 million payment is found to be a bribe, then “you could argue that the Trump Organization is receiving the proceeds of crime and therefore is being used as a money-laundering opportunity.”</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ft.com/trumptoronto" rel="noopener" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Read the whole report here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/kushner-firms-285-million-deutsche-bank-loan-came-just-before-election-day/2017/06/25/984f3acc-4f88-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98_story.html?utm_term=.57934f36c238</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no link img</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One month before Election Day, Jared Kushner’s real estate company finalized a $285 million loan as part of a refinancing package for its property near Times Square in Manhattan.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The loan came at a critical moment. Kushner was playing a key role in the presidential campaign of his father-in-law, Donald Trump. The lender, Deutsche Bank, was negotiating to settle a federal mortgage fraud case and charges from New York state regulators that it aided a possible Russian money-laundering scheme. The cases were settled in December and January.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, Kushner’s association with Deutsche Bank is among a number of financial matters that could come under focus as his business activities are reviewed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is examining Kushner as part of a broader investigation into possible Russian influence in the election.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The October deal illustrates the extent to which Kushner was balancing roles as a top adviser to Trump and a real estate company executive. After the election, Kushner juggled duties for the Trump transition team and his corporation as he prepared to move to the White House. The Washington Post has reported that investigators are probing Kushner’s separate December meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, and with Russian banker Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, a state development bank.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Deutsche Bank loan</b> capped what Kushner Cos. viewed as a triumph: It had purchased four mostly empty retail floors of the former New York Times building in 2015, recruited tenants to fill the space and got the Deutsche Bank loan in a refinancing deal that gave Kushner’s company $74 million more than it paid for the property.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The White House, in response to questions from The Post, said in a statement that Kushner “will recuse from any particular matter involving specific parties in which Deutsche Bank is a party.” Kushner and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deutsche Bank loans to Trump and his family members have come under scrutiny. As Trump’s biggest lender, the bank supplied funds to him when other banks balked at the risk. As of last year, Trump’s companies had about $364 million in outstanding debts to the bank.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats from the House Financial Services Committee wrote on March 10 that they were concerned about the integrity of a reported Justice Department investigation into the Russian money-laundering matter “given the President’s ongoing conflicts of interest with Deutsche Bank,” citing “the suspicious ties between President Trump’s inner circle and the Russian government.” The Justice Department did not respond to a question about whether it is following up on the money-laundering settlement that Deutsche Bank reached with New York state regulators in December.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On May 23, the Democratic members asked Deutsche Bank to disclose what it had learned in its internal review about whether Trump may have benefited from the improper Russian money transfers. The bank refused, citing U.S. privacy laws. The Democratic letter also raised the possibility that the bank had conducted a similar review of Kushner — without mentioning his name — by referring to a review of accounts “held by family members, several of whom serve as official advisers to the president.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Democrats wrote that it was important to learn more about Deutsche Bank loans to Trump and family members to determine whether they were “in any way connected to Russia.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Play Video 3:00</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Untangling the web of Jared Kushner</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What you need to know about Jared Kushner's ties to Russia. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The refinancing loan with Deutsche Bank is mentioned in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a public offering of ­mortgage-backed securities. It states that Kushner and his brother, Joshua, “will be guarantors” under what was called a “nonrecourse carve-out.” Such guarantees require more than a loan default to kick in. They are commonly known as “bad boy” clauses, a reference to how a lender could seek to hold the guarantor responsible for the debt under circumstances that might include fraud, misapplication of funds or voluntary bankruptcy deemed inappropriate. The terms of the guarantee, which generally are not secured by collateral, are negotiated between lender and borrower.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The way to look at this is, so long as you’re not a ‘bad boy’ and don’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about,” said James Schwarz, a real estate lawyer who is an expert in such clauses. “To the extent you would do something fraudulent, then you have things to worry about.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The corporate loan and Kushner’s personal guarantee are not mentioned on his financial disclosure form, filed with the Office of Government Ethics. Blake Roberts, a lawyer who represented Kushner on the matter, said in a statement to The Post that Kushner’s form “does not list the loan guarantee” because the disclosure relied on “published guidance” from OGE that he said “clearly states that filers do not have to disclose as a liability a loan on which they have made a guarantee unless they have a present obligation to repay the loan.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Post sent the language cited by Kushner’s lawyer to Don Fox, a former general counsel and acting OGE director. After reviewing the wording, he said in an interview that he would have advised Kushner to disclose the personal guarantee of the $285 million corporate loan because of its size and possible implications.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If I were still at OGE and somebody came to us with that set of facts, I would say, ‘By all means, disclose it,’?” he said, referring to “the spirit of the law.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After being informed of Fox’s statement, Roberts contacted Fox to present his view that no disclosure was required. Fox said in a follow-up email to The Post that even if OGE “advised there was no requirement to disclose,” he would not have argued that point but “I would have nonetheless recommended Jared over report in this instance given the magnitude of the contingency and the public interest in liabilities — actual and potential — to Deutsche Bank.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Separately, Kushner disclosed that he and his mother have a personal line of credit with Deutsche Bank worth up to $25 million.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Deutsche Bank deal was one of the last Kushner orchestrated before joining the White House. It is among the dozens of complex transactions that he was involved with during his decade in the real estate business.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Although Kushner divested some properties in an effort to address potential conflicts, he retains an interest in nearly 90 percent of his real estate properties, including the retail portion of the former New York Times headquarters, and holds personal debts and loan guarantees.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The deal that led to the Deutsche Bank loan is rooted in a holiday party held in late 2014 at the Bowlmor bowling alley, which is located in the retail portion.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the party, Kushner decided that the four retail floors of the building, while rundown, could be transformed into a thriving tourist destination, according to his associates.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The building passed through several owners after the newspaper sold the property for $175 million in 2004 to Tishman Speyer. Tishman sold it three years later for $525 million to a company called Africa-Israel Investments. (Those transactions prompted Trump a few months ago to poke fun at the Times, tweeting that the “dopes” at the newspaper “gave it away.”)</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Africa-Israel’s decision to purchase the building was made by its chairman, an Uzbek-born Israeli citizen, Lev Leviev. He is one of the world’s wealthiest men, known as the “King of Diamonds” for his extensive holdings in Africa, Israel and Russia. He was then expanding his real estate holdings in New York City.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Leviev told the New York Times shortly after the building’s purchase that he was a “true friend” of Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, </b>largely through his work with an influential Jewish organization in the former Soviet Union. The newspaper wrote that he kept a photo of Putin in his office in Israel. Leviev’s company said in a statement to The Post that Leviev “does not have a personal relationship” with Putin but has met him “on a few occasions.” Leviev’s statement said he was referring to his belief that “Mr. Putin has been a ‘true friend’ to the Jewish people in Russia.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2008, a year after the building’s purchase, Leviev invited Trump to his Madison Avenue store, an ultra-high-end establishment called Leviev Jewelry, where they were photographed together, according to the Leviev statement. Leviev hoped to work with Trump on Moscow real estate deals, according to an article in Kommersant, a Russian newspaper. The Leviev statement said that the two “never had any business dealings with one another, contrary to speculation.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Six years later, Kushner saw an opportunity for his own company.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Leviev, whose company was having financial difficulties, according to an Israeli press account, sold the building’s 12-floor office portion for $160 million, a transaction that did not involve the four retail floors.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Leviev’s daughter, Chagit, took charge of her father’s U.S. subsidiary and set out to find a buyer for the retail portion of the building. The company said it would entertain offers no lower than $300 million.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kushner’s company offered $265 million, which was rejected. Kushner himself then negotiated with Chagit Leviev and others in 2015 and succeeded with a $296 million offer, according to an official involved in the matter.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It was a very hard back-and-forth New York negotiating style,” said Kushner’s broker, Lon Rubackin. Leviev’s partner in the deal, Five Mile Capital, did not respond to a request for comment.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Few knew it at the time, but the negotiations were nearly consummated when Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, ran into Chagit Leviev on May 4, 2015, at an after-party for a Metropolitan Museum of Art gala — an encounter that was memorialized in a picture posted on Instagram.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Such a pleasure seeing ­@jaredckushner and his stunningly beautiful wife @ivankatrump last night [at] the #metball­afterparty,” Chagit Leviev wrote.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The deal was signed a week later and closed in October 2015. The Leviev company said in a statement to The Post that Kushner simply made the highest offer and “there was no political element to the transaction.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kushner took over a property that was only 25 percent leased, according to a company official. His company recruited tenants, offering some a year’s free rent to lock in long-term contracts, according to an SEC filing. As a result, the building was nearly fully leased, with higher rents, including new tenants such as National Geographic.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The strategy paid off when Kushner’s company went to Deutsche Bank for refinancing. </b>An appraisal cited in SEC filings for the package of mortgage-backed securities placed the value at $470 million, a 59 percent increase in a year. The bank declined to release the appraisal, but a person involved in the deal said that such a rapid increase was unusual when New York real estate was rebounding from recession, and credited Kushner for finding stellar tenants.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a statement, Kushner Cos. President Laurent Morali said the property’s value increased sharply “for a simple reason: the building’s dramatic turnaround. We had a vision for the property when we purchased it that no one else had, and are proud to say that we executed on it.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kushner’s company took out $370 million in new loans in October 2016, giving it $74 million more than the purchase price a year earlier. Along with $285 million from Deutsche Bank, Kushner’s firm received $85 million from SL Green Realty, where Kushner had once worked as an intern. SL Green spokesman Rick Matthews said the deal made sense because the building has been mostly leased, giving it “increased value.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Deutsche Bank loan was delivered just before the bank — which has long been under investigation by federal and state authorities — agreed to pay a $7.2 billion U.S. penalty in December for mortgage securities fraud in its packaging of residential mortgages. T<b>he bank also paid a $425 million New York state fine in January for failing to properly track large transfers from Russia.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee wrote in their March 10 letter that because “press reports indicate” the Justice Department is continuing to investigate the money- laundering case, they are “concerned about the integrity of this criminal probe” in light of Trump’s “ongoing conflicts of interest with Deutsche Bank.” Bloomberg News has reported that the Justice Department has requested records related to money laundering from Deutsche Bank as part of a probe.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mojo</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sergey Gorkov</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A graduate of the FSB’s finishing school for spies, Gorkov heads Vnesheconombank, Russia’s state-owned development bank—effectively Putin’s slush fund. With its board seeded with Kremlin ministers, including Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, the bank was the majority lender for the Sochi Olympics, has helped Russia gain financial power in Ukraine, and is currently under US sanctions because of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. In December 2016, Gorkov attended a meeting with Jared Kushner brokered by Kislyak—after which Gorkov appears to have gone directly to meet with Putin.</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/carter-page-i-don-t-deny-meeting-with-russian-ambassador-889043011736</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>T</b><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>wo years before joining the Trump campaign as a foreign policy adviser, New York business consultant Carter Page was targeted for recruitment as an intelligence source by Russian spies promising favors for business opportunities in Russia,</b> according to a sealed FBI complaint.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Page confirmed to ABC News that he is the individual identified as "Male-1" in a 2015 court document submitted in a case involving the Russian spies.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Page told ABC News he cooperated in the case, and felt the Feds "unmasked" him by describing him in January 2015 in a manner that would be known to energy insiders.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I didn't want to be a spy," he said in an interview early Monday afternoon. "I'm not a spy."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the document, the FBI interviewed Page as part of the investigation stemming from the indictment of three Russian men identified as agents of the Russian overseas intelligence agency, the SVR. One of them, Evgeny Buryakov, was operating undercover as an executive in the New York office of a Russian development bank. The Buryakov case resurfaced in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/us/politics/senate-jared-kushner-russia.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share" target="_blank" style=" background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px !important;">headlines</a>&nbsp;last week when <b>President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner revealed he had met with the head of the same bank</b>. Buryakov was sentenced to 30 months in prison as part of a plea agreement, but he was released from prison over the weekend and is awaiting deportation to Russia.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the FBI court filings, spy recruiters were overheard speaking with Buryakov about “the attempted use of Male-1 as an intelligence source for Russia,” the court record says. The recruiter says he “promised Male-1 a lot” and told him he would use his “connections in Russia” to “push contracts” his way. “For now, his enthusiasm works for me,” the recruiter says of Page.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page was never accused during the Buryakov case of having been successfully recruited or of spying. FBI agents say in the court record that they interviewed “Male-1” in June 2013. During the interview, Page described how he and the man identified as a Russian recruiter, Victor Podobnyy, met periodically and exchanged emails about the energy industry, but</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> nothing in the court document suggests that Page shared any sensitive information with Podobnyy. Rather, it appears they spoke in much the way business executives seeking opportunities do – with Page touting his work ties to the Russian energy firm Gazprom. The Russians were heard laughing, saying Page had no idea they were government agents.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The FBI said “Male-1” provided the Russians his “outlook on the current and future of the energy industry” and “also provided documents … about the energy business.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Early in his campaign for president, Trump identified Page as one of his top foreign policy advisers during a Washington Post editorial board meeting.</b> At the time, Page had almost no public profile in Washington foreign policy circles. In September, he emerged as a key figure in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections when questions began to circulate about a speech he gave at a prominent Moscow university over the summer. Page was also named in the now infamous dossier prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele hired to conduct opposition research on Trump. The dossier alleged that Page used the speech as cover to meet with senior Kremlin officials on Trump’s behalf, a claim that Page has denied.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an interview with ABC News in February, Page said that he has always advocated for warmer relations between the U.S. and Russia – both in his published work and during his July speech in Moscow - but he never met with key Russian officials on Trump’s behalf.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It would have been an honor to meet [Russian oil executive and Putin ally] Igor Ivanovich [Sechin], but I never had that opportunity,” Page said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Page, whose name appears repeatedly in Steele's dossier under the heading “Secret Kremlin Meetings Attended by Trump Advisor,” called its assertion “absolutely ridiculous.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Never happened,” he said emphatically.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Page’s cameo in the Buryakov spy case has not been previously reported. The federal case resurfaced in news reports last week when Kushner confirmed that, in late December, he met with the director of the Russian-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB Bank) at the suggestion of the Russian ambassador to the U.S<b>. VEB Bank is currently under Ukraine-related sanctions from the U.S. </b>Bank officials told ABC News in a statement that the meet with Kushner was business related.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Federal prosecutors argued that Buryakov had use his job as a high-ranking official in the Manhattan office of VEB Bank as cover for espionage. He was arrested on January 26, 2015, and accused of serving as an agent for SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Buryakov operated under "non-official cover," posing as a private citizen while he passed information to two SVR agents tasked with gathering "economic intelligence" about the United States.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"More than two decades after the end of the Cold War, Russian spies still seek to operate in our midst under the cover of secrecy," said former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office handled the case, in 2016. "But in New York, thanks to the work of the FBI and the prosecutors in my office, attempts to conduct unlawful espionage will not be overlooked. They will be investigated and prosecuted."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Undercover FBI agents lured Buryakov and his SVR associates, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy, into a trap by masquerading as a well-placed business sources ripe for recruitment while using physical and electronic surveillance to gather enough information to build their case.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following his arrest, Buryakov agreed to plead guilty to "conspiracy to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government" in exchange for serving just 30 months in prison (rather than the five-year maximum sentence) and paying a fine of $100,000. Sporyshev and Podobnyy fled the country and returned to Russia.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Friday, Buryakov was granted early release from federal prison. The terms of his sentence included a requirement that he be deported upon his release. A source familiar with his case told ABC News “Mr. Buryakov has been released and is awaiting return to Russia.”</font>

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