Former Senator John Breaux, D-La and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.
Gazprombank GPB (OJSC), a Russian bank targeted with sanctions by U.S. President Obama over the Ukraine crisis, has hired two former U.S. senators — now at Squire Patton Boggs — to lobby against those sanctions, according to a new disclosure filed with the Senate.
The U.S.-based Center for Public Integrity reports that Gazprombank has retained the services of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former Senator John Breaux, D-La. A lobbying registration filing lists the two as the main lobbyists under the Gazprombank account for the firm Squire Patton Boggs, lobbying on “banking laws and regulations including applicable sanctions.”
Gazprombank is controlled by Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom, the country’s largest gas producer; it supplies about a third of Europe’s natural gas.Gazprombank is a subsidiary of Gazprombank, Russia’s third largest bank. On July 16th, the U.S. Treasury Department added it to a list of Russian firms barred from debt financing with U.S. institutions.
Lott and Breaux left public service almost a decade ago and are among more than 300 members of Congress who’ve become lobbyists, and begun petitioning former colleagues on behalf of clients, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2008, they started a lobbying firm with their sons, Breaux Lott Leadership Group, which was acquired by D.C.-lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs in 2010. Patton Boggs merged with Squire Sanders to form Squire Patton Boggs in June.
