armenia
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an 9 26
A very wealthy donor to President Donald Trump scored a deal with a Russian state-owned bank that would normally be off-limits due to sanctions, the International Consortium of Independent Journalists reported.
Konstantin Sokolov is a Russian-American businessman and a major donor to Trump's political groups. In 2025, he gave $11 million to MAGA Inc., the president's super PAC, and also contributed to Trump’s White House ballroom project.
Trump signed off on new sanctions last week. The new sanctions would target Russian officials, financial institutions, energy and defense sectors and oil-shipping networks. It also authorizes tariffs of up to 100 percent on major purchasers of Russian oil and gas, one explainer outlined.
But already, Trump's funder is exempt, according to a Treasury Department decision. Sokolov will be able to buy a major copper mine in Armenia from the Russian state-owned bank.
"The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC, can grant a license to individuals or companies to complete transactions that would otherwise be prohibited by sanctions," the ICIJ explained. "OFAC states on its website that it may grant a license to do business with sanctioned Russian entities when it is in the interest of the applicant and the U.S. government."
Sokolov's spokesperson confirmed that such approval was given.
Sokolov was also appointed chairman of a new $200 million State Department enterprise fund that will invest in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, which is a strategic geographic region at the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Armenia is expected to benefit. That means Sokolov has two overlapping roles: first, he owns or manages private businesses in Armenia, including the copper mine. Second, Sokolov helps oversee a U.S. government-backed investment fund that may invest in Armenia.
Armenian lawmakers and critics are concerned that the relationship creates a potential conflict of interest by essentially granting Sokolov public or government-supported investment and decision-making in a country where he also has large private financial interests.
Armenia’s National Assemblymember Mesrop Manukyan said when speaking to the ICIJ that Sokolov’s position “create[s] legitimate questions about … the separation between private commercial interest and decisions involving public or government-backed funds.”
Sokolov's spokesperson also claimed there was “no evidential basis” to link Sokolov's donations to Trump and approval by Trump's government. Suggesting otherwise “would be incorrect and wholly misplaced," they added.
While the administration and Sokolov deny any corruption, the report raises legitimate questions about transparency, favoritism and whether private business interests could overlap with Trump's government power.
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- In 2020, TheAmerican Conservative reveals the involvement of BGR in oil corruption.[25] fueling the war crimes committed by Azerbaijan against Armenians.
2020
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/as-war-rages-azerbaijan-pumps-money-and-propaganda-into-u-s-lobbying-machine/
hmmn
no docs
as conflict heats up over Nagorno-Karabakh, a tiny Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, a covert battle is taking place on Capitol Hill to win the hearts and minds of lawmakers in Washington.
Since hostilities began on September 27, hundreds of lives have been lost as Azerbaijani drones have flown within 20 miles of Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, and an Armenian strike was carried out on a military base in Azerbaijan’s second city, Ganja
“The next targets could be oil and gas facilities in Azerbaijan, or Yerevan and Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku,” reports theNew York Times, an escalation with the potential to draw inTurkey, Russia, and Iranon opposing sides.
Well-armed and financed Azerbaijan is receiving assistance from Turkey, an American ally. Turkish drones and jets have been exacting civilian casualties on Armenians, and as TACpreviously reported, Armenians are in danger of ethnic cleansing once again.
“Civilians are bearing the brunt of surge in violence,” reported the International Committee of the Red Cross on October 2. They added, “Civilian deaths and injuries, including of children, have been reported on both sides of the line of contact, and in Armenia.”
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has ramped up its public relations campaign, employing not one but six of K Street’s heavy-hitting firms, including the Livingston Group, Stellar Jay Communications,BGR, the Podesta Group, and DLA Piper. Last year the country spent $1.3 million on lobbying.
Armenia traditionally lobbies through American community groups, and has just one firm working for them, Alston and Bird. The contract was signed September 16, so it’s unclear how much money they will spend petitioning Washington this year, but documents reveal they haven’t spent any money lobbying since 2016.
Azerbaijan, on the other hand, lobbies in much the same manner as a Gulf State—though with considerably less resources—and has a long history of extensive lobbying efforts.
In an attempt “to whitewash its dictatorial image…the autocratic government of Ilham Aliyev has unleashed spin-doctors, duped reporters, and led one of the most brazen pushes to abuse American lobbying loopholes of any foreign government,” wrote Casey Michel in 2016.
For years, lobbyists on the dime of Azerbaijan have met with universities, think tanks, and members of Congress. They’ve arranged the placement of favorable op-eds in outlets like *The Hill*, the *Washington Times*, the Daily Caller, *National Review*, the Washington Post,and the *New York Times*. These articles were initially published without disclosing the authors’ financial ties to Azerbaijan.
While oil-rich Azerbaijan’s lobbying slowed after 2016 due to the collapse of its currency, Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) documents reveal a flurry of recent activity aimed at convincing Washington elites that Armenia is the aggressor and that the U.S. should favor Azerbaijan in the conflict.
When American lobbying and public relations firms are hired by foreign countries, they are legally required to register their clients with the Justice Department under FARA. They are also required to provide a list of the activities they undertake on behalf of the foreign country.
Azerbaijan’s hired K Street guns are distributing what are euphemistically referred to in FARA documents as “informational materials.” These materials could be more accurately described as propaganda. The documents distributed on Capitol Hill highlight Armenia’s “provocative actions,” its “illegal” role in the conflict, that Armenia allegedly “kills Azerbaijani civilians, including children,” and how “Armenia’s leaders have been actively undermining the ongoing peace process.”
The documents lobbyists distribute on Capitol Hill make some incredulous claims: that “Armenia has long been involved with Middle Eastern terrorism,” that “Azerbaijan has been consistent in urging substantive and result-oriented negotiations in order to achieve a breakthrough in the conflict,” and that “Turkey is not directly involved and is not a party to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.”[docs]
https://www.newsweek.com/giuliani-mysterious-ties-russia-former-soviet-union-decades-1215349
no lnx
Trump Lawyer Rudy Giuliani's Mysterious Ties to Russia and Former Soviet Union Go Back Decades, Experts Argue
BY CRISTINA MAZA ON11/16/18
02:21Who is Rudy Giuliani?
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While lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani represents President Donald Trump on matters related to the special counsel's investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russia, Giuliani has maintained his own ties to the Kremlin and its allies.
In the month of October, Giuliani traveled to Armenia at the invitation of a Kremlin-linked businessman to participate in a forum for a Russia-led economic union. That same month, the former New York mayor was also named in a criminal complaint because his former law firm allegedly helped Kazakh fugitives launder stolen money. Both Armenia and Kazakhstan were once part of the Soviet Union, and today their governments, security services and intelligence organizations maintain close ties to Moscow.
But experts say Giuliani's ties to individuals from the former Soviet Union go back decades—and his lucrative connections to the region have occasionally been intertwined with Trump's.
"One of Giuliani's earliest associations was with Semyon 'Sam' Kislin, who donated money to both his 1993 and 1997 campaigns [for mayor] and was appointed by Giuliani to serve on the New York City Mayor's Council of Economic Advisors," Olga Lautman, an investigative reporter who spent three years tracking ties between the Russian mafia and Trump's associates, told Newsweek.
Kislin's website details that the Russian was an active member of the mayor's council until Giuliani left office in 2001.
"According to FBI and Interpol reports, Kislin, a wealthy commodities trader, was using his company to launder money from Russia to the U.S.," Lautman added.
Giuliani and his representatives did not respond to numerous requests for comment from Newsweek.
Giuliani's former law firm also has longstanding ties to a couple from Kazakhstan who fled their country after being accused of stealing millions.
On October 8, Viktor Khrapunov, the former mayor of the Kazakh city of Almaty, and his wife, Leila Khrapunova, were found guilty of financial fraud, taking bribes and running a criminal organization. They were sentenced to 17 and 14 years in jail respectively. Law enforcement officials say the couple helped launder around $10 billion stolen from their country.
It is unlikely, however, that the Khrapunovs will go to prison anytime soon. The couple is avoiding jail time in Switzerland, where it is exceptionally difficult to get an extradition request approved. Lawyers representing the city of Almaty argue that the couple successfully laundered billions of dollars stolen from Kazakhstan in jurisdictions across the U.S. and the world. There are currently court cases pending against them in California and New York.
Court documents allege that the Khrapunovs have deep ties to Trump's former adviser Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman with a criminal history who claims to have been a CIA informant. In 2013, Sater's development company Bayrock helped the Khrapunovs purchase three condos in Trump Tower Soho and quickly resell the properties.
Financial analysts say it's likely the purchases were used to launder money.
It is unclear whether Trump was aware of the purchase or of the origin of the funds used to buy the condos. But Giuliani, Trump's longtime friend and associate, must have been aware that the Khrapunov's money had a dubious provenance. Years earlier, Giuliani's law firm helped establish a company in the Netherlands through which some of the couple's money was funneled.
On October 22, the New York City-based human rights organization Avaazfiled a complaint asking Dutch courts to investigate two companies that were set up in the Netherlands to launder some of the Khrapunovs' stolen funds.
The companies are Bayrock B.V., the Dutch subsidiary of Sater's former employer Bayrock Group LLC, and KazBay B.V., another company Bayrock Group opened for the Khrapunovs.
KazBay B.V. was registered in 2007 with the assistance of Giuliani's then-law firm Bracewell & Giuliani LLP.
"Rudy Giuliani's law firm was involved in setting up one of the companies, and there are a bunch of overlapping connections between that company and the other companies connected to the Khrapunovs, like the Switzerland-based company Helvetica Capital S.A.," Emma Ruby-Sachs, deputy director of Avaaz, told Newsweek.
"One of the concrete connections is that $1.5 million went into KazBay from Bayrock and Helvetica. We also know that the biggest overlap is in the stakeholders and individuals used to set up these companies, and we know there is a connection between this fraud and Felix Sater," Ruby-Sachs added.
Sater, a longtime adviser of President Trump who attempted to help him set up a Trump Tower in Moscow, is named as a beneficiary in the complaint. Giuliani is personally named over a dozen times in the complaint's footnotes.
It was not the first time Giuliani and his firm had dealt with Kazakhstan. Bracewell & Giuliani LLP had an office in the country as early as 1997, the same year Khrapunov became mayor of Almaty. Giuliani's firm used its office in Kazakhstan to collect donations from U.S. expats for the former mayor's failed presidential bid in 2008. During the campaign in 2007, Giuliani threw a fundraising event in Almaty. It's unclear if he ever traveled to the country personally.
Ten years later, Giuliani has been working for Trump, but he has refused to give up his lucrative contracts with foreigners. In June, he traveled to Paris to speak at the annual conference of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK), an Iranian opposition group that the U.S. government previously listed as a foreign terrorist organization. People familiar with the matter told Newsweek that the MeK often pays speakers five-figure sums.
But experts say the former mayor has placed a specific emphasis on cultivating ties with the former Soviet Union, and that he has made numerous trips to the region, including some since Trump took office.
"In 2004, Giuliani took a trip to Russia and met with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Moscow's then-Mayor Yury Luzhkov, known for his corruption and dealings with Russian organized crime officials, and he unexpectedly made his way to a steel plant near the Kazakh border. Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works was flush with cash and looking for acquisitions in the U.S., and some speculated that Giuliani was eyeing a role as the middleman," Lautman explained to Newsweek.
[Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani speaks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their meeting in Moscow, on September 9, 2004.
ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES]
Many of Giuliani's trips to the region were organized with the assistance of a murky consulting firm calledTri Global Strategic Ventures. According to the company's website, several people on the company's board have links to the Russian government, including Ara Abramyan,the Armenian businessman who invited Giuliani to Armenia last month.
Tri Global Strategic Ventures did not return requests for comment from Newsweek. A phone number for the company's alleged spokesman Vitaly Pruss led to the voice mailbox of an employee who identified herself as Veronica, but neither Abramyan nor Veronica returned Newsweek's calls.
Last year, Tri Global Strategic Ventures organized a trip for Giuliani to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where he met with Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes and the oligarch Pavel Fuchs, both of whom were loyal to the Pro-Putin regime of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Fuchs, who made his fortune in Moscow's real estate industry, allegedly played a role in the failed attempts to establish a Trump Tower in Moscow around 2008. He is also reportedly under investigation in Ukraine for allegedlyattempting to purchase $160 million of the frozen assets of Yanukovych, who fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014 after being ousted by a pro-Western social movement.
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The website for Tri Global Strategic Ventures is peppered with pictures of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral and of Giuliani attending various meetings. Following Giuliani's 2017 trip to Ukraine, which was one of a handful of meetings with Ukrainians that Giuliani and his representatives held in the last year, the company published a press release claiming that "the meeting between the official delegation from the City of Kharkiv, Ukraine and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and John Huvane, CEO of Giuliani Security & Safety, was a success."
The president's lawyer's company will allegedly help the city of Kharkiv establish a new office for emergency management.
"The most controversial recent event was Giuliani's trip to Armenialast month at the invitation of Ara Abramyan, an oligarch closely linked to Putin. Giuliani spoke on a panel at the event alongside Sergei Glazyev, an official sanctioned by the U.S. who is an extremist and is viewed as a possible eventual successor to Putin,"Lautman added.
In an interview with the local press, Giuliani said he was visiting Yerevan, Armenia, as a private citizen and was not representing the U.S. president. Nevertheless, he failed to respond to questions about whether he was paid to appear on the panel with Glazyev, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin who was one of the first people sanctioned by former President Barack Obama for Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
"Giuliani also met with Armenia's Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan. But overall, the visit itself seemed to be more about Guiliani's dealings with Russia and Mr. Abramyan than Armenia itself," Grigor Atanesian, an investigative reporter in Armenia, told Newsweek.
During his panel in Armenia last month, Giuliani lectured the audience about Armenia's ability to protect itself from cyberattacks. The event was part of the annual business forum of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Moscow-led economic bloc that includes Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-upped-trips-to-russia-and-former-soviet-states-after-trumps-election-propublica
Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, appears to have stepped up his appearances in Russia and former Soviet states since Trump was elected. ProPublica reports that last week, Giuliani reportedly was invited to Armenia by Ara Abramyan, an Armenian businessman who lives in Russia. Giuliani said he was in Armenia as a private citizen, but on a local TV news show, Abramyan implied that he expected Giuliani to carry a message for him to Trump, according to ProPublica. Giuliani also attended a cybersecurity conference while in Armenia, where he spoke on a panel with a Russian currently on the U.S. sanctions list imposed after Russia’s invasion of Crimea. ProPublica noted that Giuliani’s work abroad doesn’t appear to break any laws or rules, but that it seems unprecedented. Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney and a law professor at the University of Michigan (and a regular Daily Beast contributor) told ProPublica, “I don’t recall seeing anything like this before.”
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Giuliani has had many identities in his time on the public stage. A crusading federal prosecutor who struck terror in mobsters and Wall Street titans alike. A sometimes-cantankerous New York City mayor who became a national hero for his stirring leadership after the 9/11 attacks. And, currently, President Donald Trump’s unpaid attorney in the Russia collusion investigation being led by Robert Mueller.
In this week’s episode of “Trump, Inc.,” we’re digging into a part of Giuliani’s work that has occurred largely outside of the spotlight: He has often traveled to Russia or other former Soviet states as guests of powerful players there. And since Trump was elected, he appears to have stepped up the frequency of those trips.
Just last week, for example, Giuliani appeared in the former Soviet republic of Armenia, which has close trade ties with Russia. He was invited, according to local press accounts, by Ara Abramyan, an Armenian businessman who lives in Russia. Abramyan once helped reconstruct the Kremlin and also received a medal for “merit to the fatherland” from President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Giuliani said he was in Armenia as a private citizen, but on a local TV news show, Abramyan implied that he expected Giuliani to carry a message for him to Trump. (The conversation was in Armenian, so it’s not clear whether Giuliani understood what Abramyan was saying.)