is also registered on<\/a> behalf of LetterOne. From February 1 to July 31 of last year, the firm reported providing \u201cstrategic counsel and stakeholder engagement advice\u201d to the company, including outreach to think tanks and media companies. During that period, the firm was paid $600,000 in fees. Teneo did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\nThe effort by LetterOne to sever ties to its Russian oligarch board members underscores a broader effort by financial firms, private industry and influence peddlers to distance themselves from Russia following Putin\u2019s decision to invade Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Other groups have also, at least partially, scrubbed their websites of ties to sanctioned Russian entities. The U.S.-Russia Business Council quietly removed VEB Bank and VTB.RF from its list of members on its website after President Joe Biden announced sanctions on the Russian financial institutions. The U.S. Treasury described Vnesheconombank, or VEB, as \u201ccrucial to financing the Russian defense industry\u201d and VTB Bank \u2014 Russia\u2019s second-largest financial institution \u2014 as \u201cone of the largest financial institutions Treasury has ever blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Council was engaged with lawmakers and policymakers on potential actions that the U.S. government may take. According to public disclosures, the U.S.-Russia Business Council has lobbied the Department of Commerce, National Security Council, Department of State, and Department of Treasury, and Congress on Russian sanctions. Those conversations are meant to deter \u201cunintended consequences,\u201d said a person close to the Council, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about internal deliberations.<\/p>\n
Despite sanctions from the administration, Sberbank, Russia\u2019s largest financial institution, and Gazprombank, Russia\u2019s third largest financial institution, have retained their memberships with the U.S.-Russia Business Council, according to the council\u2019s website. Herman O. Gref, chief executive officer of Sberbank, still sits on the Council\u2019s board.<\/p>\n
The U.S.-Russia Business Council did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n
At least one other group has partially distanced itself \u2014 at least publicly \u2014 from sanctioned Russian institutions. The website for the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia does not list Sberbank or VTB Bank among its list of members. However, a downloadable file on the website with a list of members dated February 2022 still includes those institutions.<\/p>\n
The Chamber did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The aggressive sanctions regime against Russia has not only been disruptive to global financial institutions but to Russia\u2019s business elite themselves. Both Fridman and Aven have publicly distanced themselves from the Kremlin. In a statement, the two denied ties to Putin as described by the EU, calling them \u201cspurious\u201d and \u201cdefamatory allegations,\u201d and vowed to contest the sanctions. LetterOne published a note from Fridman to employees in which he called \u201cfor the bloodshed to end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caitlin Opyrsko contributed reporting.<\/p>\n