Business Ties to Russia Dog Rep. Taylor

[maddezmom]

The 65-year-old banker and timber magnate makes regular appearances at events in western North Carolina. He is not well-known beyond his district, but over the past last decade-plus, he's developed extensive business and political ties to Russia.

Taylor has financed a series of construction projects in and around Ivanovo, an industrial city about 150 miles northeast of Moscow.

In the late 1990s, Taylor was a major player in the Russian Leadership Program, a congressionally funded legislative exchange with Russia's Duma. In 2003, he purchased the Bank of Ivanovo.

Last year, Taylor secured $100,000 in federal money for the International Trade and Small Business Institute. It brings foreign students to the U.S. to study at seven colleges and universities in western North Carolina. This year, the federal budget for the 2007 budget year contained a $1 million earmark for the program.

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''All congressmen should help their districts and try to bring programs and needed money in,'' said Shuler's campaign manager, Hayden Rogers. ''But I'm not clear how helping Russian students benefits the people of western North Carolina, and I don't think the taxpayers' checkbook should be used to pay for interns for Congressman Taylor's bank.''

more:http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Congressmans-Russian-Ties.html

[marmar]

1. Another day, another corrupt Republican....

Repugs have never met a moneyed special interest they won't whore for.