Unraveling: Podesta became the official lobbyist of the "Russian" Gemcorp

Warning! This is an automatic translation from Bulgarian. The translation has not been checked by the editor desk and may be inaccurate or ambiguous. The publisher endorses only the Bulgarian version of the article.

The Russian capital fund Gemcorp, with which our government signed a memorandum of investment of 1 billion. He needs lobbying services in the U.S. and has hired Tony Podesta’s office. Earlier, an investigation by BIRD showed that Podesta has become a partner of behind-the-scenes lawyer Momchil Mondeshki and is representing Delyan Peevski, a lawmaker sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act, in the United States.

Information Podesta’s new treaty was uploaded to the U.S. Senate’s lobbying register on June 21, but the treaty itself dated May 1. Atanas Bostandzhiev, which took place in Europe in April, at which the parameters of their cooperation were probably agreed.

Russian or not?

To date, Atanas Bostandzhiev is still on the American list of politically connected persons with Russia because of his work in a senior management position at the Russian bank VTB. Gemcorp denied that the fund currently has Russian capital, but the explanation that the fund’s employees bought hundreds of millions of dollars of capital from Russian owners were not backed by documents.

The BRRD’s revelations that Russian billionaire Albert Avdolyan, who is close to Putin, is behind Gemcorp, caused a political scandal and the creation of a special parliamentary investigative committee. According to Finance Minister Assen Vassilev, the recommendation for Gemcorp came from the US, but the US embassy denied it. However, Vassilev made an agreement that the initiative for the memorandum with the fund belongs to the Minister of Energy from ITN Alexander Nikolov. “I hope he learned his homework,” Vassilev said.

The formalization of relations with Podesta provides another explanation for the inclusion of Gemcorp. The contract between the American lobbyist and the Russian fund should be interpreted in the light of Podesta’s direct contacts with the behind-the-scenes circles in Bulgaria related to Delyan Peevski. ITN’s attack on the government is probably related to the fact that the introduction of the “Trojan horse” Gemcorp in the most strategic projects of the state for years to come was not successful.

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