Biden refused lunch with Baturina
The US president said he “never talked to anyone about business,” calling a Fox News reporter’s question about his business connections “lousy.” Republicans claim that he dined with the ex-owner of Inteko Elena Baturina.
US President Joe Biden said he “never spoke to anyone about business.” So he answered a question from Fox News journalist Peter Dusi about the business ties between Biden and his son Hunter. The words of the American leader leads The Hill.
“There is evidence in which one of your son’s former business partners claims that you talked a lot with them about business,” Doucy told Biden at an event in Belen, New Mexico. “I knew you were going to have a lousy question,” the president replied. The journalist asked: “Why is this question lousy?”. “Because it’s not true,” Biden said.
The US House Oversight Committee released a transcript of a conversation with Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, who alleged that he put his father, then vice president, on the speakerphone during some business meetings.
According to the committee, Biden, who was then vice president, dined at the Milano restaurant in Washington in 2014 with the former owner of the Inteko developer and the widow of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, Elena Baturina, the son-in-law of the former mayor of Astana, Kenes Rakishev, and the former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Massimov, as well as with his son Hunter and his business partner Devon Archer. Later, in 2015, the current American leader and his son met in the same institution with Masimov, Archer and Vadim Pozharsky, an adviser to the leadership of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
According to a Republican report, in 2014 Baturina transferred $3.5 million to the American company Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC, co-founded by Biden’s son. The president’s family received $142,300 from Rakishev and Masimov, and $6.5 million from Pozharsky, who worked with Burisma owner Nikolai Zlochevsky.
Hunter Biden served on the board of directors of the Ukrainian private company Burisma in 2014-2019. At this time, Joe Biden served as vice president, in fact, he was entrusted with overseeing policy towards Ukraine.
During the 2020 US election campaign, Biden and his son Hunter became involved in a Ukraine-related scandal. His opponents said that Hunter Biden used his father for lobbying activities, and Biden Sr. pressured Kyiv to fire Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who led the investigation against Burisma. The New York Post wrote about this, citing emails leaked from Hunter Biden’s laptop. In one of the letters, Pozharsky asked Biden Jr. to think about how he could use his influence to help Burisma. Joe Biden himself denies allegations of helping his son.
The Republicans also pointed out that Hunter Biden was paid up to $50,000 a month at Burisma, although he had no experience in the oil and gas sector.
