Turns out there was some Russian invovlement in the 2016 campaign after all. Only problem is, that Russian involvement was for the Podesta family. Turns out John Podesta’s brother was actually paid $170,000 over a six-month period last year to represent Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank. Amazing how that works out isn’t it?
| Podesta brother paid $170,000 to end US sanction on Russian bank |
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Podesta, founder and chairman of the Podesta Group, is listed as a key lobbyist on behalf of Sberbank, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms. His firm received more than $24 million in fees in 2016, much of it coming from foreign governments, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Podesta is the brother of John Podesta, who was the national campaign chairman for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s losing 2016 campaign for the presidency. Former President Barack Obama imposed the sanctions following the Russian seizure of the Crimean region of Ukraine in 2014.
The lobbying campaign targeted Congress and the executive branch, with Podesta and other lobbyists arranging at least two meetings between Sberbank officers and Department of State officials, according to Elena Teplitskaya, Sberbank’s board chairman, who spoke to House aides in August.