The Shining City Upon a Hill

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Let the invasion of Ukraine be a lesson to us all that guns are needed in the USA. The Ukraine government is now handing out free guns to ordinary citizens to help defend themselves and their country.


Biden and Trudeau want to make us sitting ducks for Putin.

[Copier Addict]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

You've resorted to insults. You just can't have an honest debate.

And you've resorted to defending something that is easily fact checked. Why do you find it so difficult to be honest about trump? He obviously praised putin. Just admit it.

[bsm2]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Let the invasion of Ukraine be a lesson to us all that guns are needed in the USA. The Ukraine government is now handing out free guns to ordinary citizens to help defend themselves and their country.


Biden and Trudeau want to make us sitting ducks for Putin.

From a guy who DOESN'T Know Shit about NOTHING guns or the US Military

What happen to Putin Peace Keepers and Trumps Brilliance suck up QUOTE

Good thing we HAVE NATO

[bsm2]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

US lobbying firms rush to cut ties with Russian businesses hit with sanctions


In the years leading up to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, US lobbyists have raked in millions of dollars from Russian banks and financial firms paying to push their interests in Washington.

Now, in the wake of the Russian invasion and new sanctions announced by President Joe Biden, many of those lobbying firms are rushing to cut ties and drop their lucrative contracts.

At least six lobbying firms that previously represented now-sanctioned Russian banks and companies tied to a Russian natural gas pipeline terminated their contracts or representation this week, according to statements and federal lobbying disclosures.

The exodus marks the rupture of a Moscow-to-K-Street conduit that has long employed former federal officials and members of Congress of both parties, experts said.

“For anybody that’s representing a Russian entity in Washington, DC, it’s an uphill climb … that has just gotten a lot steeper,” said Benjamin Freeman, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a foreign policy think tank, who has written a book on foreign influence. “It’s going to be hard to find a sympathetic ear for any of these Russian clients on the Hill right now.”

Some of the banks Biden targeted with sanctions, including VTB, Russia’s second-largest, were put under “full blocking” sanctions, which freeze organizations’ US assets and prohibit them from doing business in the country. That means it would be illegal for lobbyists to work for them unless they receive a license from the Treasury Department, according to legal experts. Dropping contracts with fully blocked banks “is not a gesture in solidarity with Ukraine, this is a requirement under US law,” said Erich Ferrari, an attorney who specializes in US economic sanctions. Lobbyists could face prosecution for running afoul of sanctions laws, he said.

But even for lobbyists representing firms that aren’t fully blocked, it would be a “real reputational risk for these firms to keep representing these sanctioned entities,” said Freeman, who called ties to Russia a “scarlet letter” in DC.

Biden’s move to impose sanctions on Russia is intended to make Vladimir Putin’s government pay a financial price for the attack on its neighbor – the most significant military invasion in Europe since World War II. The sanctions will “impose severe costs on the Russian economy” and “exceed anything that’s ever been done,” Biden said in a speech Thursday.

Russian stocks fell precipitously in the wake of the invasion and sanctions – but Putin’s government has been preparing for stronger sanctions for years, so it’s unclear how much economic damage the measures will do in the long term.

The Russian banks did not respond to requests for comment about their lobbyists abandoning them, but several issued statements saying they were prepared for the sanctions or calling Biden’s actions politically motivated. “We have worked through several plans to counter the sanctions in ways which minimize the negative consequences for our clients,” a spokesperson for VTB wrote in an email.

VTB has had one of the longest-running lobbying presences in DC among Russian banks. It has paid lobbying and law firm Sidley Austin more than $2 million since 2015, according to disclosures filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Among the company’s lobbyists were Rick Boucher, a former Democratic congressman from Virginia, and George Madison, the former general counsel of the US Treasury Department. A spokesperson for Sidley said Friday that VTB is “no longer a client” of the firm “in compliance with US sanctions.” The spokesperson declined to say when the decision had been made to end representation, but Sidley was still receiving $30,000 a month from VTB as of September 2021, according to its most recent disclosure.

VTB hired Sidley and other lobbyists after federal officials placed more limited sanctions on the bank following Putin’s takeover of Crimea. In 2016, lobbyists for VTB arranged a meeting between the bank’s chairman and State Department official Daniel Fried, who worked on Russian sanctions, and also invited him to a VTB-sponsored gala – part of a wide-ranging influence campaign, as the Center for Public Integrity first reported in 2018.

Fried, who is now a fellow at the Atlantic Council, told CNN that the lobbying had no impact on him or his State Department colleagues.

“I said I’ll talk to him but I won’t go to his fancy banquets,” Fried said of the bank’s chairman. “I told him, ‘You’re part of Putin’s system, you benefit from that system, that system is responsible for aggression to Ukraine, and you know perfectly well why we’re hitting you.’ “

After he left the State Department, Fried said, he had personally been approached by lobbyists offering “bucket loads of money” to work for oligarchs trying to avoid sanctions, but he turned down the offers. “What am I going to do, buy another Prius?” he asked.

Boucher wasn’t the only member of Congress to advocate for a Russian bank. David Vitter, a former Republican US senator from Louisiana, and Toby Moffett, a former Democratic congressman from Connecticut, lobbied in recent months for Sovcombank, another bank Biden sanctioned this week.
Their firm, Mercury Public Affairs, signed a $90,000-per-month contract with Sovcombank in January, and Vitter lobbied against the bank’s inclusion in sanctions legislation being debated on Capitol Hill, federal filings show.

Sovcombank “would be an extremely counterproductive sanctions target” due to its “deep ties to US and western institutions,” Vitter wrote in one message disclosed by Mercury in a Justice Department filing. He said that Sovcombank manages pension funds, employment insurance or savings for more than 40 major US companies, and he argued that the bank being targeted for sanctions “would have major negative market consequences.” The firm also reported that it had disseminated a 28-slide PowerPoint presentation that highlighted Sovcombank’s environmental sustainability investments and its commitment to diversity.

A Mercury spokesperson said the firm had terminated its contract with the bank Thursday when it was included in Biden’s sanctions.

Among the other companies sanctioned by Biden, a US subsidiary of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, paid more than $800,000 to Venable LLP for lobbying since 2017, according to Senate records. A former congressional staffer and Treasury Department lawyer registered as lobbyists for the subsidiary, and their work included monitoring legislation and administrative actions related to sanctions, the firm’s filings said.

A Venable spokesperson said the company had terminated its contract with the Sberbank subsidiary on Friday.

And VEB bank, which was sanctioned by the Biden administration earlier this week, paid $62,500 a month to Geopols, a DC communications firm, from 2019 to 2020. Geopols “provided advice and consultation on public affairs policy and media interactions” and met with “U.S. government officials and their staff, and members of the media to discuss potential new sanctions legislation,” according to filings.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

And you've resorted to defending something that is easily fact checked. Why do you find it so difficult to be honest about trump? He obviously praised putin. Just admit it.

Liar. Why do you continue to lie on me? Just because you didn't like my answer, you resorted to name calling. Same old, same old.

[Copier Addict]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Liar. Why do you continue to lie on me? Just because you didn't like my answer, you resorted to name calling. Same old, same old.

Well, you see, when one person calls another person "pretty smart" and says their moves are "genius" that's praise. You denying it is dishonest.
Trump has a long history of praising dictators. Again, something that is easily proven. Whether you are honest and admit it or not makes no difference.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Well, you see, when one person calls another person "pretty smart" and says their moves are "genius" that's praise. You denying it is dishonest.
Trump has a long history of praising dictators. Again, something that is easily proven. Whether you are honest and admit it or not makes no difference.

Liar. All you do is lie on me and troll me with your Trump obsession. It's old, buddy. Joe Biden is president and the world is falling apart under his direction and all talk about is nonsense. Grow up and become an adult.

[Copier Addict]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Liar. All you do is lie on me and troll me with your Trump obsession. It's old, buddy. Joe Biden is president and the world is falling apart under his direction and all talk about is nonsense. Grow up and become an adult.

I can see you really don't want to have an adult conversation.
You can defend your wannabe dictator until the cows come home. I have lost interest. You are getting extremely boring.

[slimslob]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

In the midst of war the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has decided to stay in his nation and show bravery in the face of a Russian invasion. President Joe Biden has decided to leave the White House and head to Delaware for the weekend. I hope it also dawns on Canadian liberals that their Prime Minister fled honking horns and the President of Ukraine refused to flee the Russian Army.

Please Wait... | Cloudflare

Interesting thing, I haven't heard anything on the news about a recent death in the Biden family. I wonder who the "memorial" is for, if anyone. Sounds more like Psaki is trying to blow a smoke screen out her ass again.

[bsm2]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

In the midst of war the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has decided to stay in his nation and show bravery in the face of a Russian invasion. President Joe Biden has decided to leave the White House and head to Delaware for the weekend. I hope it also dawns on Canadian liberals that their Prime Minister fled honking horns and the President of Ukraine refused to flee the Russian Army.

Please Wait... | Cloudflare

Interesting thing, I haven't heard anything on the news about a recent death in the Biden family. I wonder who the "memorial" is for, if anyone. Sounds more like Psaki is trying to blow a smoke screen out her ass again.

Wow Trump playing golf at his property in Florida so what

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

White House, EU announce expulsion of "selected Russian banks" from SWIFT



In an announcement late Saturday afternoon, the White House said, in concert with of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada, the US is backing the expulsion of “selected Russian banks” from SWIFT, the high-security network that connects thousands of financial institutions around the world, and pledged efforts to “collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin.”

... this action has the strong potential to rock the financial system inside of Russia. The main Russian generator of cash is oil and natural cash exports. Without SWIFT, those exports cannot be paid.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

White House, EU announce expulsion of "selected Russian banks" from SWIFT

This means nothing. Putin can get around the sanctions as long as China stands by Putin....and they will.

[bsm2]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

This means nothing. Putin can get around the sanctions as long as China stands by Putin....and they will.

Apparently you have no idea how the banking system works

What a Surprise

Russian GDP is the size of Texas

Cuting their cash flow will cripple the Russians economy

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

I encourage liberals to read something other than the left wing rags. The truth shall set you free.

New York Times columnist David Brooks said: