Romney Invested in ‘Number One Foe’s Assets

US Republican Party presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who recently branded Russia as America’s number one geopolitical enemy, invested in the shares of Russian firms in 2011 through his equity fund, according to his and his wife’s tax returns, international media reported. The trust fund managing Romney’s assets made investments in the shares of Russian energy giant Gazprom and Internet search engine Yandex. Mitt and Ann Romney’s 2011 tax returns were published on September 21 but the media has uncovered the Republican presidential candidate’s investments in Gazprom and Yandex only now. The tax returns indicate Romney’s trust acquired the Yandex stock in June and sold it in August 2011 and also bought the shares of Gazprom in August and sold them in September that year. In both cases, Romney sustained losses from these operations. Romney’s management company made investments in the shares of German auto maker Volkswagen and French sports clothing company Adidas, Japanese car giant Toyota, Chinese oil firm CNOOC and Brazilian bank Itan, the tax returns show. The returns indicate Romney and his wife earned a total of $14 million last year and paid $1.9 million in taxes. Romney’s entire wealth is estimated at $200 million.