Russian bank hires two former U.S. senators

U.S. sanctions against Russia are becoming a boon for Washington's lobbyists


By Alexander Cohen <http://www.publicintegrity.org/authors/alexander-cohen> 


 
<http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/09/02/15450/russian-bank-hires-two-form
er-us-senators> 

Former Sens. John Breaux, D-La., and Trent Lott, R-Miss.

Wikicommons

Gazprombank GPB (OJSC), a Russian bank targeted with sanctions by President
Obama over the Ukraine crisis, has hired two former U.S. senators to lobby
against those sanctions, according to a new disclosure filed with the
Senate.

Gazprombank is controlled by Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom,
the country’s largest gas producer; it supplies about a third of Europe’s
natural gas.

In a filing
<http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=6837f72
2-cb0c-4e36-87d9-5f8783e8743d&filingTypeID=1>  submitted Friday and
effective that day, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and
former Senator John Breaux, D-La., are listed as the main lobbyists under
the Gazprombank account for the firm Squire Patton Boggs, lobbying on
“banking laws and regulations including applicable sanctions.”

Gazprombank GPB (OJSC) is a subsidiary of Gazprombank, Russia’s third
largest bank. On July 16th, the U.S. Treasury Department added it to a list
<http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/pages/jl2572.aspx>  of
Russian firms barred from debt financing with U.S. institutions.

Lott and Breaux left public service almost a decade ago and are among more
than 300 members of Congress who’ve become lobbyists, and begun petitioning
former colleagues on behalf of clients, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics <http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/top.php?display=Z>
. In 2008, they started a lobbying firm with their sons, Breaux Lott
Leadership Group, which was acquired by D.C.-lobbying powerhouse Patton
Boggs in 2010. Patton Boggs merged with Squire Sanders to form Squire Patton
Boggs in June.

Gazprom has been in the news a lot. In July, The Permanent Court of
Arbitration, an intergovernmental organization located in The Hague,
Netherlands, ruled that the Russian government should reimburse $50 billion
to certain shareholders of former Russian oil company Yukos. The tribunal
said the government, in a series of actions starting in 2003 “accompanied by
serious due process violations,” had dismantled and seized the assets of
Yukos and transferred them to Gazprom and state-run oil company Rosneft.

Last month, Russian gas firm OAO Novatek retained
<http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/08/13/15233/russian-gas-company-hires-d
c-lobbyists>  Washington, D.C., public relations firm Qorvis to lobby the
administration and Congress after one of its largest shareholders, an
associate of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was similarly targeted for
sanctions by the United States.

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko"

 

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