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FinalRR
Ibid.
327
Ibid.
328
Ibid.; US. Department of the Treasury, Treasury Sanctions Russian Officials, Members of the Russian Leadership’s Inner Circle, and an Entity for Involvement in the Situation in Ukraine Mar. 20, 2014. Alec Luhn & Luke Harding, Spain Issues Arrest Warrants for Russian Officials Close to Putin The Guardian, May 4, 2016. From the Kremlin, Putin has allegedly continued to use Russian- based organized crime groups to pursue his interests both at home and abroad, including to smuggle arms, assassinate political opponents, earn black cash for off-the-books operations, conduct cyberattacks, and support separatist movements in Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine.
323
Euan Grant, an expert in transnational crime, told The Moscow Times that Russians linked to organized crime groups have formed a large quasi-intelligence agency for the Kremlin, acting as political Trojan horses that use their money to undermine morale, compromise officials and weaken Western re- solve.’’
324
In 2016, a judge investigating Russian mafia operations in Spain issued international arrest warrants for several current and former Russian government officials with alleged connections to a money laundering operation run by a Russia-based crime group in Spain. Spanish prosecutors also alleged that a senior member of the
Duma, Vladislav Reznik, helped the head of the Russian crime syndicate in Spain, Gennady Petrov, get his allies into senior positions in the Russian government in exchange for assets in Spain.
325
Spanish investigators tapping Petrov’s phones heard him speak with a deputy prime minister and five other cabinet ministers, as well as various legislators, including Reznik, a founder and vice president of Putin’s United Russia party and head of the Dumas finance committee.
326
Reznik and Petrov regularly socialized and did business together, sharing a private jet and the same secretary, lawyer, and financial adviser in Spain.
327
Reznik was also a member of the board of directors of Bank Rossiya, which fell under US. sanctions in 2014 for its role in Ukraine and was described by the US. Treasury Department as the personal bank for senior officials of the Russian Federation.’’
328
And from 1998-99, Petrov was reportedly a co-owner of Bank Rossiya, along with several men belonging to Putin’s Ozero cooperative of dacha owners (the Panama Papers also revealed that Bank Rossiya transferred at least $1 billion to Putin’s friend, the musician Sergei Roldugin).
329
There are also multiple historical links between Putin and
Petrov’s gang in St. Petersburg. The gang was then led by Vladimir
Barsukov and started out in St. Petersburg in the early s, the same time that Putin served as the city’s deputy mayor. In addition to illicit activities, the gang was allegedly involved in real estate, banking, and energy, including the Petersburg Fuel Company
(PTK), which, thanks to a decision involving Putin, won a contract
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56 Sebastian Rotella, A Gangster Place in the Sun How Spain’s Fight Against the Mob revealed Russian Power Networks ProPublica, Nov. 10, 2017. Mark Hosenball, A Stain on Mr. Clean Newsweek, Sept. 2, 2001.
332
Ibid.
333
Ibid.; United Kingdom House of Commons, The Litvinenko Inquiry Report into the Death
of Alexander Litvinenko, at 112 (Mar. 2015). Damien Sharkov, ‘‘ Putin Involved in Drug Smuggling Ring Says Ex-KGB Officer News-
week, Mar. 13, 2015. Mark Galeotti, Crimintern: How the Kremlin Uses Russia’s Criminal Networks in Europe,
European Council on Foreign Relations, at 1 (Apr. 2017).
336

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