From the article: "As reported at the end of March, the Podesta Group registered with the U.S. Government as a lobbyist for Sberbank, as required by law" And a

From the article: "As reported at the end of March, the Podesta Group registered with the U.S. Government as a lobbyist for Sberbank, as required by law" And are those things different? Maybe Russian corporate law is different than it is in the US, but owning 51% of a company generally gives you control of that company, unless there are weird share structures like non-voting shares a la Google. But generally speaking, majority ownership and control are synonymous.