New report from Senate Republicans alleges that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million payment from the wealthy wife of Moscow’s former mayor, amid a slew of other financial transactions and entanglements that federal government officials warned presented conflicts of interest as the former vice president spearheaded the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.
Democrats have dismissed the Republican report, which was released Wednesday, as playing up Russian misinformation, and the 87-page document did not demonstrate that Hunter Biden’s financial entanglements impacted U.S. policy. But it emphasized that government officials flagged concerns about potential conflicts of interest and that the former vice president’s son’s financial interests with foreign governments “accelerated” during the administration of former President Barack Obama.
“Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow,” the Republican report, which was the result of an investigation led by GOP Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, explained as one of its “key findings.”
Baturina, a billionaire, was previously married to Yuri Luzhkov, who served as mayor of Moscow but was fired for alleged corruption in 2010. The report details how Biden’s business received a $3.5 million payment from Baturina in February 2014, which was described to be for “consultancy” work. In 2015, Biden also received several payments of several hundred thousand dollars from Baturina, several of which were listed as part of a “loan agreement.”
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