Mr. Nelson said he had spoken with Mr. Ross about the Bank of Cyprus and had been told<br />that Mr. Ross had one meeting of about an hour with a Russian investor in the lender in 2014.<br />After leading a group of around 30 investors from the United States<br />and elsewhere in a 2014 investment in the Bank of Cyprus worth 400 million euros, Mr. Ross served for a period as co-vice chairman of the bank along with Mr. Strzhalkovsky, Mr. Putin’s old K. G.B.<br />“Nobody could tell the Russians that they could not invest, but they are proud people and they could see<br />that this was an attempt to keep them out — or at least minimize their influence,” said Mr. Papaconstantinou, who lost his seat on the bank’s board in the purge that started after Mr. Ross’s arrival.<br />But while several of Mr. Trump’s closest allies have come under scrutiny for Kremlin ties, Mr. Ross, who was confirmed<br />by the Senate on Monday, was no friend to the Russians in Cyprus — and in fact, he forced them out of the bank.<br />Mr. Papaconstantinou, the former board member, said he spoke with Mr. Ross during one of his visits to Cyprus<br />and asked why he had put money into such a troubled bank.
