In particular, Congressman Earl Blumenauer received the highest profit among legislators on shares of defense companies since 2021, The Daily Caller portal notedWASHINGTON, January 5.
/tass/. Members of the US Congress who voted in favor of providing billions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine were able to earn substantial funds last year on shares of Pentagon defense contractors. This was reported on Thursday by the information portal The Daily Caller.
Last year, US lawmakers approved military aid to Kiev in total in the amount of more than $ 20 billion, including weapons and equipment worth $12.7 billion, which are sent to Ukraine directly from the warehouses of the US Department of Defense. As the portal explains, in order to make up for these supplies, leading American defense corporations have significantly increased production, and members of Congress who traded shares of companies have made significant profits. The Daily Caller notes that many of them supported the provision of military assistance to Kiev. In addition, the article notes, several Republican lawmakers who voted against such bills bought shares of defense companies.
Thus, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (Democrat from Oregon) received the highest profit on shares of defense companies since 2021 among legislators - 40%, the portal notes. A member of the House of Representatives of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Green (Republican from Georgia), who voted against military assistance to Ukraine, with 35.5% of income from shares, became the leader among Republicans. At the same time, Congressman John Rutherford (Republican from Florida) and Blumenauer, according to the portal, bought shares of one of the largest Pentagon contractors, Raytheon Corporation, for up to $ 15 thousand on February 24, when the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine began. Rutherford later said in his tax return that his advisers had mistakenly purchased these shares, and they were sold on March 14 at a profit of 3%. Both congressmen supported military aid to Ukraine. A number of Democrats and Republicans who voted in Congress for these initiatives, as well as their spouses, sold their shares of defense companies in the middle and at the end of last year and made significant profits. Senator Debra Fisher (Republican from Nebraska) in June 2022 sold shares of another Pentagon contractor to Lockheed Martin Corporation for up to $100 thousand.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other Russian officials repeatedly drew attention to the danger of the spread of weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine in other regions. Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov warned that the militarization of Ukraine by the West directly threatens European and global security.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24 last year about the holding of the SVO in Ukraine in connection with the request of the leaders of the republics of Donbass for help. He stressed that Moscow's plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories, and the goals are demilitarization and denazification of the country. The West, in response to Russia's decision, began gradually imposing numerous and large-scale sanctions against it. Along with this, Western states have begun to supply weapons and military equipment to Kiev for amounts estimated at this stage in billions of dollars. A number of Western politicians have admitted that it is, in fact, an economic war against Russia. As Putin stated on March 16, the Western sanctions policy towards Moscow has all the signs of aggression. He pointed out that the policy of containing Russia is a long-term strategy of the West.
