Maryland comptroller calls on state’s $68.5B pension fund to divest from Russian entities

State Comptroller Peter Franchot is calling on Maryland’s $68.5 billion pension fund to divest from Russian entities due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine and the negative impact from economic sanctions by the Biden administration. “Given the justified sanctions that the United States and other nations have imposed on Russia in response to its unjustified violent invasion of Ukraine, it would not only be financially unwise to maintain any assets tied to Russian entities, but it would continue to embolden a brutal dictator and the legion of oligarchs who have turned a blind eye to a regime defined by fear, violence, and antidemocratic values,” Franchot wrote in a letter to the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System on Monday.