Sergey N. Gorkov – активные мероприятия

Sergei Gorkov is the head of a Russian state investment bank, Vnesheconombank (VEB), which is considered a bank for Putin-directed projects and is under U.S. sanctions related to Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea, Ukraine territory http://www.veb.ru/en/about/today/. VEB’s Supervisory Board is chaired by Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, and includes members such as Russian First Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov, Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Alexander Khloponin, and Russian Government Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov. Gorkov graduated from Russia’s federal security service, FSB, in 1994. He then worked at Menatep Bank and subsequently worked at Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovskiy’s oil company, which was later taken back into Russian government ownership in 2004 when Putin accused Khodorkovskiy of tax evasion. Most agree that Khodorkovskiy’s political views were truly the reason for Putin’s actions.

In 2008, Gorkov worked for Sberbank, Russia’s state owned bank, and then was appointed in 2016 to head VEB, which has been heavily hit as a result of U.S. sanctions related to Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. Sperbank is represented by Marc Kasowitz, President Trump’s attorney, who was named lead attorney in defending the company in a federal civil lawsuit https://www.buzzfeed.com/anthonycormier/trumps-longtime-lawyer-is-defending-russias-biggest-bank?utm_term=.uvnz29Pbw#.qhYe35PA2.

Kislyak requested a meeting between Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Gorkov in December of 2016 after the Presidential election. Gorkov is suspected to have ties to Russian intelligence services and worked at Yukos prior to VEB. Some officials believe that this meeting may have been a part of the Kushner’s attempt to secure private communications with the Kremlin (see Kislyak page). Additionally, Kushner did not disclose the meeting on his security clearance form. No details of the meeting have been made public, but VEB has stated that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the bank’s new development strategy. Some western analysts suggest the possibility that U.S. sanctions, issued after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, may have been a topic discussed, as the bank has had financial difficulty since sanctions were put in place.

VEB is also considered to be a cover for Russian intelligence services after the FBI arrested and deported Evgeny Buryakov, an employee of the bank who pleaded guilty to espionage and who was working for Russia’s foreign intelligence service https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/26/us-charges-alleged-russian-spies-new-york. Buryakov also attempted in 2013 to recruit Carter Page, Trump’s former campaign manager, as an intelligence asset, a fact that was included in the FBI indictment. Carter Page is currently under scrutiny in the Department of Justice Russia investigation http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sergey-gorkov-russian-banker-met-jared-kushner/story?id=47722731.