Dan Friedman is reporting for Mother Jones magazine former Congressman John Sweeney has a new job. In August, Sweeney signed a lucrative contract to lobby on behalf of a key Russian bank connected to Vladimir Putin's government, just as Congress is considering legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia for its attack on the 2016 American elections. Under the terms of the contract, the Troy native will receive $62,500 per month for 12 months of work. Sweeney filed paperwork late last month with the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit to represent VEB, a Kremlin-controlled investment bank. The filing says that Sweeney will “engage in meetings and other communications with U.S. government officials regarding potential new sanctions legislation…that could affect” the bank. Sweeney is the former Republican representative of New York's 20th congressional district. He served from 1999 to 2007, before being defeated by Democrat, now Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. An early Donald Trump supporter, Sweeney successful ran Trump/s primary campaign in New York, and served on the presidential transition team. He began lobbying the White House soon after Trump took office on behalf of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a project partly owned by Russia’s Gazprom. Read the full story in Mother Jones.