SCARAMUCCI: “EATING SNOW”
It’s All About Sanctions, Folks
On January 17, 2017, Anthony Scaramucci, an aide to Trump, the only unofficial representative of Trump’s team at the forum in Davos discussed possible joint investments with Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a $10bn state-run investment vehicle, sanctioned by the US in 2015.
The same day, January 17, according to the Russian state TASS agency, Putin confirmed Kirill Dmitriev as general director of the managing company of the RDIF for another term of five years.
Speaking to Bloomberg Television, Scaramucci said he’s long known Dmitriev and worked with him to set up the business delegation as a private citizen.
This was the first public contact between the Trump administration and Kremlin-backed business.
WHAT IS RUSSIAN DIRECT INVESTMENT FUND?
In March 2011, Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president at the time, announced a $10bn private equity fund, partly funded by the government and aimed at investing alongside international firms.
Notably, Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone and JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon served as board members for RDIF when it was established in 2011.
RDIF, VNESHECONOMBANK AND SANCTIONS
In July 2014, the US Department of the Treasury imposed economic sanctions prohibiting U.S. persons from providing and doing business with Vnesheconombank and its subsidiaries with 50% ownership.
In September 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that the American investors’ names had disappeared from the site but said that they still served on the board at that time. They are currently not listed on the international advisory board on RDIF’s website.
In July 2015, Vnesheconombank’s subsidiaries, including RDIF, were added to the sanctioned companies list.
In May 2016, Putin signed the Federal Law on the reorganization of the managing company of RDIF into a non-public joint-stock company, the only shareholder of which would be the Russian Federation, thus transferring RDIF ownership from Vnesheconombank to the Russian Federation.
In June 2017, a CNN reporter Thomas Frank claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee was looking into Anthony Scaramucci’s meeting with Dmitriev during the transition. He alleged that RDIF was linked to Vnesheconombank. Russian media denied the connection. The reporter and two editors have resigned over a story the news network retracted days ago.
VNESHECONOMBANK AND TRUMP
On December 2, 2016, Trump created the ‘President’s Strategic and Policy Forum,’ including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, and chaired by Stephen Schwarzman.
In 2016, Evgeny Buryakov, a Vnesheconombank employee in New York City who had attempted to recruit Trump advisor Carter Page, pleaded guilty in a U.S. district court to acting as a secret agent of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. Buryakov’s lawyers were paid by Vnesheconombank.
In December 2016, Vnesheconombank and chairman Sergey Gorkov met with Jared Kushner at Trump Tower in New York City.
In January 2017, Gorkov released the bank’s “Strategy 2021”, which predicted relief from sanctions.
SCARAMUCCI ON SANCTIONS
According to the Russian state TASS agency, as stated in the article on January 17, 2017, in Davos, Switzerland, Scaramucci said that the American sanctions against Russia have had the opposite effect.
“I think the Russians would eat snow if they had to. And so for me, the sanctions probably galvanized the nation with the nation’s president.”
The Russians were quick to respond.
One of the newspapers offered recipes of dishes made from snow and suggested that they could be tried by Americans in the near future, as they “experience the collapse and paralysis to the authorities as a result of excessive snowfall.”
At the rate we are going in the US, we all soon will eat snow. If it’s not on your menu, act. Share this article. Write your own. Call your senator. There are times when silence is a crime.
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