NEW from NYT: The Russian bank Jared Kushner made famous: Spies, sanctions & direct line to Putin

[MelissaB]

This is a long article, and it's hard to choose 4 paragraphs.
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Bank at Center of U.S. Inquiry Projects Russian ‘Soft Power’

... snip

VEB and Mr. Putin are inextricably linked.

The bank stepped up lending after 2008 when Mr. Putin, then prime minister, became chairman of the board. And during the oil boom, VEB was seen as embodying Russia’s new financial might.

Under a 2007 law, VEB’s mandate was to lend to important but underfinanced sectors of the Russian economy, including infrastructure and businesses that help diversify the economy beyond oil dependence.

There are other government-controlled banks in Russia, Sberbank and VTB, but they are primarily retail banks. VEB serves a very different role, lending mostly to large borrowers, many of them politically connected.

More: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/business/vnesheconombank-veb-bank-russia-trump-kushner.html

[applegrove]

1. Very long. I'll read the rest of it later.