Lukoil

<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-russia.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage">Data Firm Tied to Trump Campaign Talked Business With Russians - The New York Times</a>

Asked about the Russian oil company, a spokesman for SCL said that in 2014 the firm’s commercial division “discussed helping Lukoil Turkey better engage with its loyalty-card customers at gas stations.” The spokesman said SCL was not ultimately hired.

Arash Repac, chief executive of Lukoil Eurasia Petrol, offered a different explanation for the talks. He said that a meeting he attended with SCL in Turkey involved a promotional campaign with local soccer teams.

“We needed somebody to guide us with the customer data that we were collecting,” he wrote in response to a question from The Times. “Even though our campaign went ahead, we decided not to cooperate with SCL. No contracts were signed.”

But Christopher Wylie, who helped found Cambridge Analytica and develop the company’s voter-profiling technology, said Lukoil showed interest in how the company used data to tailor messaging to American voters.

“I remember being super confused,” said Mr. Wylie, who took part in one of the Lukoil meetings.

“I kept asking Alexander, ‘Can you explain to me what they want?’” he said, referring to Mr. Nix. “I don’t understand why Lukoil wants to know about political targeting in America.”

“We’re sending them stuff about political targeting — they then come and ask more about political targeting,” Mr. Wylie said, adding that Lukoil “just didn’t seem to be interested” in how the techniques could be used commercially.

Mr. Wylie, a former contractor, left SCL before the talks concluded and could not say what became of the relationship with the oil company. He had a falling out with SCL and tried to set up a rival business. SCL said he had violated a nondisclosure agreement and that his comments were an attempt to hurt the company.

A second person familiar with the discussions backed up Mr. Wylie’s account, but spoke on the condition of anonymity because of a confidentiality agreement.

Though Lukoil is not state-owned, it depends on Kremlin support, and its chief executive, Vagit Alekperov, <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/56780">has met</a> with Mr. Putin on a number of occasions. Reuters reported last year that Lukoil and other companies <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-kremlin-pr/exclusive-kremlin-tells-companies-to-deliver-good-news-idUSKBN1DE0MP">received instructions</a> from the state energy ministry on providing news stories favorable to Russian leadership.

Mr. Nix, for his part, has long been adamant. “We just don’t have business in Russia,” <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/06/the-ceo-of-cambridge-analytica-plans-a-book-on-its-methods-and-the-us-election/">he told TechCrunch</a> last year. “We have no involvement in Russia, never have done.”