Gazprom
<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gazprom </font></b><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bought by oligarch on cheap?</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sent goons to take over TV?!</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b>=</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-trump-aide-frantically-scrambles-to-scrub-russia-from-bio" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-trump-aide-frantically-scrambles-to-scrub-russia-from-bio</font></a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>fo<span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">rmer Donald Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo is determined to prove that he did not work for Vladimir Putin, and he’s using every tool at his disposal to do so—from a congressional ethics complaint, to a defamation lawsuit, to a surreptitious Wikipedia edit campaign.</span></b></font></div><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sean Dwyer, an employee of<b> Caputo’s PR firm, Zeppelin Communications,</b> was <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:DwyerSP" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; transition: color 0.15s ease 0s;">blocked</a> from Wikipedia in August after he was caught using multiple pseudonymous accounts to purge Caputo’s page of alleged Putin ties, according to an investigation by the site’s editors. After the accounts were exposed as what Wikipedia calls “sock puppets”—multiple accounts run by the same person as part of a coordinated editing campaign—Dwyer <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Baldassn#Paid_Edits_for_Michael_R.Caputo_Wikipedia_Page" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; transition: color 0.15s ease 0s;">admitted</a> he had financial ties to the subjects of his edits.</font></p><div class="teads-adCall" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="font-size: small;"><div id="x33x15293340684162997" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" position="position" sticky="sticky" style=""><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>It’s just the latest front in Caputo’s battles to save his reputation from, what he sees as, Russian smears. He also says he has filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) over comments at a congressional hearing in March, where the California Democrat accused Caputo of having been Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “image consultan</b>t.” In emails with The Daily Beast, Caputo said he will also be filing a defamation lawsuit against Zac Petkanas, a Democratic strategist who worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/10/27/trump-counsel-tells-democrat-lawyer-after-vladimir-putin-trump-dossier-allegations" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.15s ease 0s;">accused</a> Caputo of being “a Russian stooge who used to work for Vladimir Putin” in a Fox News segment last month.</font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an email, Petkanas said he stands by his statements. “To my knowledge, Michael Caputo has not disputed this <em>Washington Post</em> <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-trumps-financial-ties-to-russia-and-his-unusual-flattery-of-vladimir-putin/2016/06/17/dbdcaac8-31a6-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html?utm_term=.872fc2a39a7c" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.15s ease 0s;">report</a> to which I referred stating that he worked for a Russian government run media company to improve the image of Vladimir Putin, who was the leader of the Russian government at the time,” he wrote. “To the contrary, according to that same report, he informed his hometown newspaper that he was ‘not proud of the work today. But at the time, Putin wasn’t such a bad guy.’”</font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A Republican operative from New York, Caputo ran communications for Trump’s campaign in the Empire State. Since then, he has <a class="TrackingLink LinkWrapper" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/lobbyist-hopes-trumps-dead-uncle-wins-him-white-house-favor" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; transition: color 0.15s ease 0s;">registered as a federal lobbyist</a> and <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/01/politics/michael-grimm-campaign-announcement/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; transition: color 0.15s ease 0s;">signed on</a> with the comeback House campaign of former congressman and convicted felon Michael Grimm.</font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Caputo lived in Russia more than 20 years ago. And he has a history of business dealings in the country that, though less scandalous than those of other former Trump aides, have trailed him since his work for Trump. Unlike one-time campaign chair Paul Manafort and others in Trump’s orbit, Caputo has faced no allegations of wrongdoing. But he is nonetheless determined to head off any suggestion that he is connected to the Russian government—and by extension the stench of the federal investigation into alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign.</font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Congressional investigators probing that alleged influence campaign <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/14/politics/michael-caputo-russia-house-testimony/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.15s ease 0s;">interviewed</a> Caputo in July, and he emerged from the meeting with the same stance he had going in: insisting that there was no collusion and that he has no business dealings in Russia.</font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Caputo says Dwyer’s editing campaign was simply an effort to root out misinformation to the contrary. “Months ago, I was informed that a Russia conspiracy buff had posted an inaccurate biography of me, noting that I worked for Putin. I have never worked for Putin,” Caputo told The Daily Beast in an email. “I asked my staff to edit the posting, but to register properly as a paid editor.”</font></p><div class="teads-adCall" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style=""><div id="x33x15293340684162997" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" position="position" sticky="sticky" style=""><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dwyer did notify the Wikipedia community that he was being paid for his efforts, but he only did so after editing Caputo’s page on 10 separate occasions, primarily to tweak references to Caputo’s past work for the media arm of Gazprom, a state-owned Russian energy company with close ties to the Kremlin.</font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Caputo never worked for Putin. But his former PR firm, Rainmaker Interactive, represented Gazprom Media chief executive Alfred Kokh in the early 2000s, and helped burnish the company’s reputation with U.S. media and policymakers. At the time, Gazprom had just acquired NTV, one of Russia’s few major opposition media outlets, sparking an internal revolt among staff. </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Gazprom dispatched security services to <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/04/15/russian-network-seized-in-raid/e9679fb0-31cb-4b9c-b07f-204b488f40ad/?utm_term=.0f723cfe8b16" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; transition: color 0.15s ease 0s;">seize NTV’s headquarters</a> in a move that was widely condemned as an assault on independent Russian media. According to Kokh, Putin <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1140163.stm" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; transition: color 0.15s ease 0s;">personally sanctioned</a> the crackdown.</b></font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In an interview last year, <em>The Buffalo News</em> characterized Caputo’s subsequent PR work for Gazprom Media as “help[ing] President Vladimir Putin weather U.S. government criticism for taking over an independent TV station.” Caputo says that characterization is inaccurate, though he told the paper at the time, as Petkanas noted, that he is “not proud of the work today,” adding the caveat that at “at the time, Putin wasn’t such a bad guy.”</font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 31px; padding: 0px calc(32px + ((100% - 176px) / 12) * 2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given what Caputo characterizes as widespread—and even malicious—misrepresentations of his work in Russia, “Wikipedia inaccuracies barely even make it on my radar,” he said.</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pr dude so fluff?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Caputo" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Caputo</font></a></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>ukraine gazprom deals to launder money/firtash:</b></font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">booktv 1119</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="title" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: large; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0.35s ease 0s; outline: 0px;"><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?465487-1/blowout" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0.35s ease 0s;">Rachel Maddow, "Blowout"</a></font></span></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MSNBC's Rachel Maddow argued that the gas and oil industry are weakening…</font></span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">rachel bktv 11/19</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">
</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><b>putin solve for pattern; nat gas makes $ but also divides/disrupts; Fitrash deal as middleman (not needed) 800m$ in one year 2007 [but can be siphoned and directed to diff purposes; gazprom itself loses some $;</b></span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">
</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">2006 Putin back Party of regions Manafort; ~ Orange Yulia Tymo; she undid sweetheart deal, got rid of middleman firtsh 2009; she was arrested under anti-corruption by prosecutor [appt by Yut, charged by parl?]</span></span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Firtash gets new deal 4 bill$ profit one year?! w/ help of US PR firm?</span></span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">
</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">Yanu 180 on camp pledge to get closer to EU, putin offers 15 bill$ ukr, ppl don'r fall for it; 9/21/12 small # ppl grows fast Maidan revo 100k ppl; pots for armor; Cops harass, putin thinks cold will drive them home but no, embarass sochi olympics; 2/18/18? slingshots; KIa; ring of fire as defense; snipers, machine guns: we will give our lives to be free, not slaves; yano called off force (lost nerve?) and fled to east (regions safehouse?) </span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">
</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">Biden had made mult visits, said wd protect ukr vs russia; said russia "withering" clinging to past, could not cope w/ new changing world; [150m ppl, biggerst geo, gdp less than s korea or italy; </span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">
</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">Rudy says firtash a pal, client...</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">resource curse: decline democ, follow $; FF corps make "ownm weather"; saudi: bettee to discover water; OPEC devil's excrement"</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">
</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">Activ meas 2016 a wild pitch; why take huge risk (HC a russia hawk; she could easily find out] </span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">
</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">putin desperate to get rid of sanction b.c petrostate; he and rex made deal for 1/4 billion$ (#1 in industry if not history)</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">
</span><span class="abstract" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">Rex hd no clue he wd be offered SoS (never met trump, thot they wanted advice on energy)</span></font></span></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">hmmn blog
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Follow the Russian Natural Gas</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>If you want to understand Carter Page</div><div>Follow the Russian Natural Gas</div><div>WIB POLITICS February 14, 2018</div><div> Brian E. Frydenborg</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div><b>To make sense of Carter Page — an American oil consultant and former foreign-policy adviser to Donald Trump — you have to look at his proximity to Ukraine, Russia and some seemingly bizarre natural-gas deals.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Back in the mid-2000s, future Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort set up shop in Ukraine to do some consulting work, bringing his protégé Richard “Rick” Gates to assist. Both have been hit with criminal charges by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller and his team.</div><div>
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</div><div>On one level, the duo ran the politics for disgraced pro-Russia Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych won Ukraine’s presidency in 2010 in large part due to Manafort’s efforts and the scheme detailed below. He was driven out of power in 2014 by Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution.</div><div>
</div><div><b>On another level, Manafort and Gates worked with Putin-linked mobsters and oligarchs in one of the most elaborate and complex money-laundering schemes in history.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This plot involved massive natural gas deals between Russia and Ukraine and their main intermediary RosUkrEnergo. Russian oil giant Gazprom generally sold gas to Ukrainian businessman<b> Dmytro Vasylovych Firtash </b>via RUE at a significantly discounted price. Firtash would mark up the prices when selling the gas onward to Ukraine.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The profits — billions of dollars — were then allegedly laundered by the Russian mafia and used to bribe and control Ukrainian politicians to bend them to Putin’s will and increasingly make Ukraine’s political system subservient to Russian interests.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ukrainian politicians who were not in Putin’s pocket resisted this arrangement, leading to a major dispute over the gas deals in January 2006. Russia ended up shutting off Ukraine’s gas in the dead of winter. A new deal even more favorable to Putin resulted — one that made RUE the exclusive, direct supplier of all Russian and Central Asian gas imports.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Along with Gazprom, RUE sold to a new joint venture between RUE and Ukraine’s Naftogaz called UkrGazEnergo, which in turn marketed oil and gas to Ukraine’s industrial customers. RUE itself sold to Naftogaz for onward sale to Ukraine’s residential and municipal customers.</div><div>
</div><div>This only dramatically increased the corrupt markup opportunities involving Ukraine’s gas, further cheating and angering Ukrainians.</div><div>
</div><div>Another part of the deal involved the major Russian state-owned power company RAO UES, which paid for and imported Ukrainian electricity to sell in Russia. Ukraine generated this power from the gas UkrGazEnergo acquired to sell within Ukraine.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Obviously, this scheme gave Firtash additional points with which he could mark up prices and generate a profit. It’s telling that gas already being transported by Russia’s Gazprom pipelines into Ukraine through<b> RUE — itself half-owned by Gazprom</b> — was being used to generate electricity in Russia.</span></div><div>
</div><div>This confusing arrangement makes no logistical or logical sense, as it would have been easier for Russia to just ship gas from Gazprom to RAO through Russia. But for allegedly generating illicit funds in order to dominate Ukrainian politics, it all makes perfect sense.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Enter Page. </b>He moved to Moscow in 2004 to set up Merrill Lynch’s office there and remained until 2007. During this period — in which the complex gas deals were scouted, negotiated and put into effect — Page claims to have advised both Gazprom and RAO on major deals.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Despite his warped, very pro-Russian worldview, Page clearly possesses deep knowledge of the energy sector and regional geopolitics. The apparently informal meet-and-greet, wine-and-dine roles he often played offered him perfect opportunities to soak up gossip from drunken gas executives celebrating their blatant corruption.</div><div>
</div><div>Page was only too eager to trade in information. Even if he was hardly a major player, it’s hard to accept that he wasn’t aware of the Eurasian gas scheme. He advised not one but two major entities on opposite ends of the corrupt process. Thus it’s extremely likely he had some inkling of the improper nature of the RAO-Gazprom dealings and how they helped to undermine U.S. interests in the region by pushing Ukraine away from the United States.</div><div>
</div><div>For those arguing against Page’s importance, don’t forget that George Papadapolous also held a junior position with the Trump campaign, but still played a key role in linking the campaign to Russia and prompting the FBI’s ongoing Trump-Russia probe. Papadapolous has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and has become a cooperating person of interest in Mueller’s probe.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After his stint in Russia, Page in 2008 founded — along with Sergey Yatsenko, <b>Gazprom’s ex-deputy head of finance</b> — investment firm Global Energy Capital LLC. Yatsenko was among a number of Russians and Russian officials with whom Page met during and after the time he was attached to Trump’s campaign. By 2013, Page was calling himself “an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Page’s pro-Kremlin views even convinced a three-man Russian spy ring to try to recruit him in 2013. That ring that was<b> busted by none other than U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, who was later fired by Trump. </b>The one member of the ring not protected by diplomatic immunity went to prison, while the man with whom Page interacted, Victor Podobnyy, avoided prosecution thanks to his diplomatic cover.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Page was under FBI surveillance in 2014. A second round of surveillance began in October 2016. The Trump campaign hired Page in 2016. Page is mentioned in the paid opposition-research effort that culminated in the dossier compiled by ex-intelligence official Christopher <b>Steele.</b></div><div>
</div><div>The dossier and the surveillance of Page have become the subject of blatant distortion by Trump’s allies, who accuse the FBI and Department of Justice of conspiring against the former reality T.V. star. But there’s no conspiracy. Page has ties to Russia.</div><div><div style="font-size: small; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div></div></div></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/russia-hired-edelman/">https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/russia-hired-edelman/</a></font></p><div class="entry-content" style="margin: 5px 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FLYNN former national security adviser was <a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/6406-Registration-Statement-20170307-1.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">paid more than $500,000 last fall</a> by a group linked with the Turkish government to discredit exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, an enemy of the Turkish president. An Egyptian intelligence agency hired public relations firms Weber Shandwick and Cassidy & Associates to improve its image.<b> Iraq sent letters <a href="http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/322622-iraqs-lobbyists-mobilized-after-travel-ban-documents" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">to top Trump officials</a> such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis requesting meetings in the wake of the new president’s first travel ban, which included Iraq. The second iteration of the ban took Iraq off the list.</b></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These stories could not have been told without the help of filings required by FARA, or the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/resources/learn/glossary.php#F" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Foreign Agents Registration Act</a>. Passed in 1938 in response to secret Nazi propaganda efforts in the U.S., the law requires anyone representing a foreign government or quasi-governmental agency (as well as individual citizens of other countries and sometimes foreign companies) to file extensive reports with the Justice Department. The filings must disclose who they’re representing, how much they’re being paid, what they’ve been hired to do, the meetings and other contacts they’re having, the content of materials they’re distributing and more. But the data is normally <a href="https://www.fara.gov/quick-search.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">locked in PDFs</a> with limited search functions.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the spirit of Sunshine Week, the<em> Center for Responsive Politics</em> today releases a tool that makes looking through FARA filings a whole lot easier: <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/fara" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Foreign Lobby Watch</a>.</span>We standardized registrants, foreign principals and locations, and parsed the PDF text to allow for full-text searching. (We inherited this project from the Sunlight Foundation, which previously hosted a tool called Foreign Influence Explorer.)</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For example, a quick search of “Russia” in our database found 77 firms represented 170 governmental or pseudo-governmental entities, pulling up 274 records since 1950. <b>The last Russian lobbying registration shows that a group created by the Russian Federation hired the PR firm Edelman last year to help influence U.S. opinion on a massive court verdict involving the oil giant Yukos.</b></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That ruling was the latest twist in a complicated set of events that started in the early 2000s, when the Russian government dismantled and sold off Yukos, Russia’s largest fully privatized oil company after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin jailed two high-ranking Yukos executives, including its head, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an act that was seen as retribution for Khodorkovsky’s political opposition to Vladimir Putin. (Khodorkovsky was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/20/mikhail-khodorkovsky-freed-putin-pardon-russia" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">freed and pardoned</a> in 2013 and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/19/russia-oligarch-mikhail-khodorkovsky-no-obligations-vladimir-putin-pardon" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">lives in exile</a>.)</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Yukos went bankrupt after the Russian government charged it with tax evasion, embezzlement and money laundering. Its former stakeholders sued the government, winning a $50 million verdict in 2014 at The Hague, the largest arbitration penalty ever. But a higher court overturned the award two years later.</b></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yukos stakeholders are appealing the ruling and have pending enforcement lawsuits<strong> </strong>in a half-dozen countries, including the U.S., in efforts to collect Russian assets. The D.C. case in the district court of appeals has been put on pause until 2019, as the Netherlands case will impact what happens in the U.S. proceedings.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Amid the wrangling, the Russian Federation created a task force, the International Centre for Legal Protection, headed by a former director in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrey-kondakov-70704b90/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Andrey Kondakov</a>, to help coordinate the various ministries involved in the case. And the task force hired Edelman to help turn the tide of public opinion — <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/1642/russia.aspx" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">often suspicious of anything Russia</a> — in their favor. Kondakov did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication. </span><strong>
</strong></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Signing the contract on Edelman’s side was Randall Corley, the firm’s global compliance officer.</font></p><div style="margin: 5px 0px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Filings can fall short</font></strong></div><div style="margin: 5px 0px;"><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FARA filings are only as good as the filer, of course. We see Edelman was hired for public relations work, including drafting press releases, media outreach, helping build a website and “strategic counsel.” However, it’s not clear from the reports alone how much Edelman did. According to the FARA file, ICLP issued just one press release, on Aug. 8, which also appeared on <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/key-yukos-insider-reveals-billion-dollar-bribery-scheme-300310582.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">PR Newswire</a>: “Key Yukos Insider Reveals Billion-Dollar Bribery Scheme.”</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP.png" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;"><img class="wp-image-20823 aligncenter" src="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP.png" alt="ICLP" width="620" height="198" srcset="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP.png 829w, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP-300x96.png 300w, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP-768x246.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" style="border: none; vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin: 10px auto;" /></a>The release describes a filing in the D.C. case from a Yukos insider, Dmitry Gololobov, who “learned firsthand how the Oligarchs rigged the Russian government’s ‘loans-for-shares’ auctions in 1995 and 1996 to illegally acquire ownership of Yukos.”</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Mr. Gololobov’s testimony represents another step forward,” said Kondakov in the press release. “It confirms the corruption, fraud and bribery perpetrated by the Oligarchs at the expense of the Russian people and it validates the position that the <span class="xn-location">Russian Federation</span> has maintained throughout the <i>Yukos </i>case – that the Oligarchs’ arguments are just lies about lies.”</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As for media outreach, Kondakov is quoted in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/business/international/yukos-russia-50-billion-ruling.html?r=0" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">New York Times</a> piece reporting the overturning of the arbitration fine, but that was published before ICLP hired Edelman in June 2016. Filings and the press release show at least nine people at Edelman were affiliated with the project, and the agreement was <a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/3634-Supplemental-Statement-20170302-27.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">terminated on September 30, 2016</a>.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An Edelman representative said that they do not comment on clients, and that they filed all the necessary paperwork with FARA.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/3634-Exhibit-AB-20160615-50.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">The original filing</a> said “Work for client has begun and the contract is still being negotiated. This filing will be amended to included the contract once a signed copy is executed.” Yet <em>OpenSecrets Blog</em> found no amendment or contract in the filings that followed. And an August filing that lists receipts and disbursements for other clients <a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/3634-Supplemental-Statement-20160830-26.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">showed no line items</a> for ICLP from Feb. 1 through July 31, 2016. It’s unclear, without the inclusion of the required contract, how much Edelman was paid.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If you comply with FARA, the information is very extensive and does tell the public and the press most of what they would want to know,” said Joseph Sandler, Democratic attorney and FARA expert. “But there could be holes with what they actually include, or could include filings from nonprofit front groups and think tanks that are hard to immediately understand who is backing them.”</font></p><div style="margin: 5px 0px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A history of Russian lobbying</font></strong></div><div style="margin: 5px 0px;"><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are plenty of other Russia-related nuggets in the FARA files. For instance, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/oleg-deripaska/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">billionaire</a> Oleg V. Deripaska paid <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3315551-5934-Exhibit-AB-20090508-1.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Endeavor Group</a> a $40,000 monthly retainer in 2009 and 2010 to provide “general legal advice involving his U.S. visa, as well as commercial transactions.” The State Department had revoked Deripaska’s visa in 2006 due to concerns about his possible links to organized crime ties, which Deripaska has denied.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Endeavor Group expects to engage with the U.S. government regarding the status of the foreign principal’s visa application; interact with the United States Trade Representative office to encourage U.S. participation in the intra-governmental global aluminum discussions; and engage with the Department of Treasury’s Auto Task Force regarding the prospective acquisition of General Motor’s European operations,” <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3315551-5934-Exhibit-AB-20090508-1.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">the FARA filing says</a>.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, <a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/5934-Exhibit-AB-20101006-3.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">also wrote a letter</a> to Adam Waldman, the founder of Endeavor Group, asking for updates on the case and saying he appreciates the work the firm is doing.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“[O]ver the past several years, there has been certain ambiguity upon his visa status in the United States,” Lavrov wrote. “A persistent state of limbo regarding Mr. Deripaska’s ability to travel freely between our two countries has become an impediment to the promotion of mutually advantageous contacts between the business communities of the two countries.”</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State-owned banks also hired up in an effort to ease sanctions levied in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea. One of them, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3302651-6353-Exhibit-AB-20160511-1.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">VTB Group</a>, a financial services firm owned by the Russian government, brought on board Emaunuel Manatos (a lobbyist who <a href="http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/514/201604159012556514/201604159012556514.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">bundled almost $40,000</a> for Hillary Clinton this election) in May 2016 for $17,500 a month to “lobby Congress and Executive that affect imposition of US sanctions on Russian-affiliated banks.”</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And the name that crops up again and again is that of the <b>PR firm Ketchum Inc</b>., which has earned more than $60 million working for Russia over the past decade or so, <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/putins-washington-113894_full.html#.WMA9IW8rKUl" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">according to a POLITICO analysis of FARA filings</a>.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Russians first enlisted Ketchum’s help for “communications support” when it hosted the G8 summit in St. Petersburg in 2006, paying the company $2 million. (The country was in need of a media revamp after Russia’s energy company Gazprom <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/02/world/europe/russia-cuts-off-gas-to-ukraine-in-cost-dispute.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">cut off natural gas to Ukraine</a>.)</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ketchum also works with subcontractors such as <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3264378-5549-Exhibit-AB-20140108-10.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Alston & Bird to monitor foreign policy legislation</a>, and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3285220-5914-Exhibit-AB-20120106-7.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Clark & Weinstock</a> and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3285424-5931-Exhibit-AB-20100621-5.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Venable LLP</a> to lobby on behalf of Gazprom and keep an eye on energy policy.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/from-russia-with-pr-ketchum-cnbc" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">ProPublica</a> reported in 2012 that the Huffington Post and CNBC published pro-Russia op-eds linked to Ketchum without noting the connection to the Russian government in the pieces. A year later, Ketchum placed an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">op-ed by Putin</a> in the <em>New York Times</em>.</font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="line-height: 15px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font><div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ex-senators Breaux and Lott confirm lobbying for Russian bank on Ukraine sanctions</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Alexander Cohen October 21, <b>2014</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Excerpts from this story referencing bank</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"… <b>Trent Lott and John Breaux were part of a team paid $150,000 by a Russian bank to lobby on U.S. sanctions over the Ukraine crisis,</b> according to a new dis …"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"… quire Patton Boggs in Washington, D.C., were retained over the summer by a banking subsidiary of the Russian oil giant Gazprombank and lobbied the Senate …"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"… ed over the summer by a banking subsidiary of the Russian oil giant Gazprombank and lobbied the Senate and the Department of State on the sanctions and ot …"</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><p name="ca56" id="ca56" class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure" style="margin: 38px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his hearing to be confirmed as Secretary of State, Exxon’s Rex Tillerson portrayed himself as a Chief Executive Officer (and Board Chair) who had no idea what the company was doing in several areas, including that of his greatest responsibility: Russia.</font></p><p name="dd1d" id="dd1d" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps the most jaw-dropping exchange of the day occurred when Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) followed up on Tillerson’s amazing claim that neither he nor Exxon ever lobbied against sanctions against Russia in response to their incursions in Ukraine. Menendez showed Tillerson the documents Exxon filed, which proved they had lobbied on sanctions.</font></p><p name="57e6" id="57e6" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tillerson then professed utter ignorance of whether Exxon was lobbying <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">for</em> or <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">against</em> sanctions, saying, “I don’t know” twice.</font></p><p name="57e6" id="57e6" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em">The idea that Tillerson doesn’t know how Exxon lobbied — on an issue of clear interest to the company he was leading — defies logic.[vid]</span></p><p name="8e9a" id="8e9a" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
Tillerson was in charge of Exxon’s holdings in Russia beginning in January 1998. Tillerson was “the long-time director of a U.S.-Russian oil firm based in the tax haven of the Bahamas,” as the <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">UK Guardian</span> reported last month. In 2013, Putin gave then-CEO Tillerson the highest award a foreigner can receive — the Order of Friendship — for negotiating a <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0#.cgrtq7akk" data-href="https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0#.cgrtq7akk" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">$500 billion deal</a> with Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned (i.e. Putin-controlled) oil company.</font></p><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em"><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em">
</span></div>When Tillerson hedged on Exxon’s lobbying, Menendez appeared shocked. The Senator knows Exxon would never pay millions of dollars to lobby</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em"> </span><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em" font-feature-settings="font-feature-settings" apos="apos" liga="liga" salt="salt">for</em><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em"> </span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em">sanctions that killed deals with Russia worth hundreds of billions of dollars.</span></div><div>[<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0" data-href="https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0" class="markup--anchor markup--mixtapeEmbed-anchor" title="https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0" style="background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle; padding: 20px;"><span class="markup--strong markup--mixtapeEmbed-strong" style="letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3; display: block; margin-bottom: -8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Did Putin help elect Trump to restore $500 billion Exxon oil deal killed by sanctions</font></span><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font><span class="markup--em markup--mixtapeEmbed-em" style="display: block; margin-top: -1px; margin-bottom: 10px; max-height: 120px; overflow: hidden;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Follow the money: Will Trump repay Putin by ending Russian sanctions and killing the Paris climate deal?</font></span><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">thinkprogress.org]</font></a><div name="eac7" id="eac7" class="graf graf--mixtapeEmbed graf-after--p" style="position: relative; overflow: hidden; max-height: 280px; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0392157) 0px 1px 4px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0901961) 0px 0px 0px 1px inset; display: table; width: 700px; margin-top: 43px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0" data-href="https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0" class="markup--anchor markup--mixtapeEmbed-anchor" title="https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0" style="background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle; padding: 20px;"><span class="markup--strong markup--mixtapeEmbed-strong" style="letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3; display: block; margin-bottom: -8px;">
</span></a><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0" class="js-mixtapeImage mixtapeImage u-ignoreBlock" data-media-id="f128af626ed1b2cab4a4a309fc0e28ef" data-thumbnail-img-id="1B752EToWO5qojdzU151HvA.jpeg" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle; width: 160px; height: 160px; background-size: cover; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: center center; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0901961) 0px 0px 0px 1px inset; background-image: url(" https="https" cdn-images-1.medium.com="cdn-images-1.medium.com" fit="fit" c="c" b752etowo5qojdzu151hva.jpeg="B752EToWO5qojdzU151HvA.jpeg">
</a></div><p name="0bb1" id="0bb1" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
Since Tillerson feigned ignorance regarding Exxon’s position on sanctions, he also had to claim to be ignorant about <a href="http://www.usaengage.org/?id=1" data-href="http://www.usaengage.org/?id=1" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">USAEngage</a>, an organization Exxon is part of that exists to oppose sanctions. Yet, from mid-2003 to mid-2007, the co-chair of USA*Engage had been a <a href="http://usaengage.org/default/presspackcomplete.pdf" data-href="http://usaengage.org/default/presspackcomplete.pdf" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">senior Exxon employee</a>. But Tillerson claimed to know nothing about it.</font></p><p name="c89e" id="c89e" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last month, Politico ran a story headlined, “<a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/11/14237748/tillerson-exxon-russia-lobbying" data-href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/11/14237748/tillerson-exxon-russia-lobbying" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">ExxonMobil helped defeat Russia sanctions bill</a>.” In May 2014, Tillerson <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/rex-tillerson-exxon-mobil-expected-be-named-trump-s-secretary-n694371" data-href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/rex-tillerson-exxon-mobil-expected-be-named-trump-s-secretary-n694371" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">told Exxon shareholders</a>, “We do not support sanctions, generally, because we don’t find them to be effective unless they are very well implemented comprehensively and that’s a very hard thing to do.” He added, “We always encourage the people who are making those decisions to consider the very broad collateral damage of who are they really harming with sanctions.”</font></p><p name="55cf" id="55cf" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Yet when presented at his confirmation hearing with clear evidence that Exxon had lobbied on the sanctions, Tillerson had the chutzpah to assert he didn’t know which side Exxon lobbied on.</b></font></p><p name="3d4c" id="3d4c" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This was only the most outrageous of many unbelievable assertions by Tillerson. He didn’t think we knew enough about Putin’s crimes to call him a “<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/asked-directly-trumps-sec-of-state-nominee-refuses-to-call-putin-a-war-criminal-8701c6741604#.495yt6ivy" data-href="https://thinkprogress.org/asked-directly-trumps-sec-of-state-nominee-refuses-to-call-putin-a-war-criminal-8701c6741604#.495yt6ivy" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">war criminal</a>.” He testified that he and Trump didn’t talk about any specific Russian issues when they met. He claimed ignorance on how Exxon used a foreign joint venture to skirt the Iranian sanctions — even though Exxon had responded in detail to SEC questions on this issue after he had become CEO. And he simultaneously <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/rex-tillerson-confirmation-hearing-exxonknew-b0ca7b63d43d#.chokppi4l" data-href="https://thinkprogress.org/rex-tillerson-confirmation-hearing-exxonknew-b0ca7b63d43d#.chokppi4l" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">feigned ignorance and refused to answer</a> the question of whether Exxon had kept funding disinformation on climate science even after the company had promised to stop.</font></p><p name="44b2" id="44b2" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="markup--quote markup--p-quote is-other" name="anon_270f2759ccce" data-creator-ids="anon" style="transition: background-color 0.2s; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent !important; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(244, 235, 255), rgb(244, 235, 255));"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The “best” interpretation of the hearing is that Tillerson was a terrible CEO who knew nothing about what was happening at the company he was running. But the far more likely truth is that Tillerson, like ExxonMobil (and Trump and Putin), is a master of straight-faced disinformation.</font></span></p><p name="f2e1" id="f2e1" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p graf--last" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Either alternative points to the conclusion that Tillerson is <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/exxon-ceo-trump-worst-nominee-for-climate-40c00f67ccfe#.a0h9pm6ee" data-href="https://thinkprogress.org/exxon-ceo-trump-worst-nominee-for-climate-40c00f67ccfe#.a0h9pm6ee" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">unfit for</a> this ultra-essential cabinet post, which was first held by Thomas Jefferson, and is fourth in line to be president of the United States.</font></p><p name="f2e1" id="f2e1" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p graf--last" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.048px;">https://thinkprogress.org/tillerson-pleads-ignorance-on-exxons-russian-sanctions-lobbying-ef089e4232f8#.p0ydlt5ee</span></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/12/13/inside-rex-tillersons-long-romance-with-russia/?utm_term=.27b0cfd3d296</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><b>Inside Rex Tillerson’s long romance with Russia</b></div><div>
</div><div>By Josh Rogin December 13, 2016 </div><div>Trump’s Transition: Who is Rex Tillerson? Embed Share Play Video1:23</div><div>
</div><div>President-elect Donald Trump has picked Rex Tillerson as his nominee for secretary of state. Here's what you need to know about Tillerson. (Thomas Johnson, Victoria Walker, Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post)</div><div>
</div><div>During the presidential campaign, the Trump team fought off accusations that it had direct connections with senior Russian officials and oligarchs. Now, President-elect Donald Trump has appointed as his secretary of state Rex Tillerson, a businessman who has some of the most deep and long-standing ties to the Russian political and business elite of any American.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Not so long ago, the Trump camp disavowed its former foreign policy adviser Carter Page</b> when it was reported in September that he had met with Igor Sechin, head of the Russian oil giant Rosneft. In fact, Page had never met with Sechin. But after leading Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), called for an FBI investigation into Page’s relationship with the sanctioned Russian tycoon, the Trump team pretended he had never even been part of the campaign.</div><div>
</div><div>Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil, has a close and personal relationship with Sechin dating back over a decade. The connection was integral to ExxonMobil’s ability to deeply penetrate the corrupt but lucrative Russian oil market — and it almost led to Russia’s energy industry acquiring a significant stake in strategic American assets.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Tillerson’s involvement in Russia dates back to 1998,</b> when he was appointed head of Exxon Neftegas Limited, which was in charge of the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project off the coast of Siberia. The huge project put Tillerson in line to become the corporation’s vice president, president and eventually chairman and chief executive officer. It also led to deep relationships with Russian leaders and a growing profile for Tillerson in the Russian press.</div><div>
</div><div>In 2004, the same year that Tillerson became president of ExxonMobil, Sechin took control of Rosneft, the company in charge of the Russian part of the Sakhalin-1 consortium<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. The Rosneft partnership was not the first time ExxonMobil had attempted to join forces with a major Russian energy firm. Tillerson’s predecessor had negotiated a deal with Russian energy giant Yukos for a stake in that company. But the Kremlin turned on Yukos and its boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky, imprisoning him in 2003 on what were widely seen as politically motivated charges.</span></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>The Washington Post's Paul Kane and Steven Mufson explain why Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state, might face a few hurdles in his confirmation. (The Washington Post)</div><div>
</div><div>Tillerson learned the lessons of the Yukos episode, namely that no deal with a Russian business or oligarch is safe unless it is sanctioned by the Russian government. In a 2005 interview, he laid out his strategy for doing business in Russia, focusing on partnership over investment.</div><div>
</div><div>“ExxonMobil is not interested in buying shares in other companies, because it does not allow us to fully do what we do best. We invest in Russia, not only money,” Tillerson said.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Tillerson’s close relationship with Sechin and Rosneft benefited both sides in their competition with Gazprom, Russia’s largest gas producer, which also holds significant oil assets. </b>In 2006, Gazprom tried to exert control over the export of gas from the Sakhalin-1 project and Tillerson fought back, using the relationship with Rosneft to his advantage.</div><div>
</div><div>In 2011, Tillerson and Sechin raised the ExxonMobil-Rosneft relationship to a new level by signing the first in a series of deals as part of a “Strategic Cooperation Agreement” that involved deep cooperation in exploration and exploitation of energy sources in the Arctic and the Black Sea.</div><div>
</div><div>As part of this set of agreements, ExxonMobil was to give Rosneft subsidiaries big stakes in American and Canadian oil projects. A subsidiary of Rosneft based in Delaware struck a deal for 30 percent equity in ExxonMobil’s share of a project in West Texas and the rights to acquire 30 percent of ExxonMobil holdings in the Gulf of Mexico. Another Rosneft subsidiary struck a deal to acquire 30 percent of Exxon’s stake in the Cardium formation in Alberta, Canada, where development of the tar sands reserves was underway.</div><div>
</div><div>“These agreements are important milestones in this strategic relationship,” Tillerson said at the time.</div><div>
</div><div><b>The agreements led to Tillerson having several direct interactions with then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who remarked during one meeting with Tillerson in 2011 that it was scary to even think of the scale of the deals, which were estimated to be worth between $200 billion and $300 billion</b>.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sechin, who was also deputy prime minister at the time, was often referred to as “Darth Vader” in the Russia press and was eager to improve his public image. He traveled to New York in April 2012 and went on a publicity tour with Tillerson to tout the ExxonMobil-Rosneft cooperation.</span></div><div>
</div><div>In June 2012, Tillerson attended an event with Putin and Sechin in which Putin inaugurated a new presidential commission on fuel and energy. Sechin was appointed head of the commission. Putin spoke with Tillerson and publicly praised ExxonMobil’s involvement. “This is the best evidence that the relationship between Russia and the United States continues to develop,” Putin said.</div><div>
</div><div>Putin, Sechin and Tillerson all met again in Moscow in 2012. This video, widely circulated yesterday, shows Putin and Tillerson celebrating one of the many ExxonMobil-Rosneft cooperation deals and toasting each other with champagne. In 2013, Putin awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship, a high honor for a foreigner in Russia.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2014, the U.S. government slapped several sets of sanctions on Russian officials and entities in response to Putin’s annexation of Crimea and intervention in eastern Ukraine. Rosneft and Sechin were among the targeted entities, making it illegal for any American to do business with them. ExxonMobil’s projects with Rosneft were stalled. The losses for ExxonMobil were reported to be more than $1 billion.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Tillerson lowered his profile in Russia but continued to meet with non-sanctioned high-level Russian officials in Moscow, including Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak. ExxonMobil also became embroiled in a dispute with the Russian government over $500 million the company said it overpaid in Russian taxes. Rosneft and Sechin sided with Tillerson in this dispute.</div><div>
</div><div>At various times, Tillerson has criticized the U.S. sanctions against Russia. At ExxonMobil’s 2014 annual meeting, he said, “We do not support sanctions, generally, because we don’t find them to be effective unless they are very well implemented comprehensively, and that’s a very hard thing to do.”</div><div>
</div><div>Talking about the Russia projects at a conference in 2015, he said, “We’ll await a time in which the sanctions environment changes or the sanctions requirements change.”</div><div>
</div><div>In June of this year, Tillerson traveled to Moscow for the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, which Sechin also attended. “As to the sanctions questions, I’ll use the same approach that my friend Mr. Sechin took. That’s a question for the government,” he said at the forum. Sechin laughed and gave him a thumbs-up.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Sechin told a Reuters reporter that the sanctions hurt him in a personal way; he would no longer be able to come the United States to take motorcycle rides with Tillerson.</b> Now, the time may have come for Sechin and Tillerson to resume their business partnership and their personal friendship.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Russia leaders have praised the Tillerson appointment this week while some senators in both parties in Washington have expressed deep concerns. Tillerson’s appointment comes in the middle of a separate but related controversy over Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential campaign through hacking and other means.</div><div>
</div><div>“There are a number of senators who are hot to trot on the Russia issue, period. When you create a nexus between your State Department nominee and Russia, you’ve put it on steroids,” one senior GOP Senate staffer told me. “The fact that members are even wrestling with this does not bode well for his nomination.”</div><div>
</div><div>As the CEO of ExxonMobil, Tillerson had the duty and obligation to fight for the interests of his company. The question is whether he can now pivot and assure senators he will shed any conflicts of interest and advocate for the interests of the country.</div>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Analyses of the findings confirm that the majority of those
responsible are in the business of producing either oil, gas, or coal,
with half of the emissions released in the past 25 years. </b></font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate change experts said the research was the most ambitious so far to hold individual carbon producers responsible, <a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/just-90-companies-are-responsible-for-two-thirds-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions/">Grist</a> <em>reported</em>. Former Vice President Al Gore welcomed the report and said it was a “crucial step forward." </font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, who are the top 5 corporate offenders? </font>
<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1. ChevronTexaco </font></strong>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unsurprisingly, Chervon Texaco is the top emitter of man-made carbon
emissions among investor-owned companies. The multinational energy
corporation is active in more than 180 countries and is one of the
world’s largest corporations. </font>
<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2. ExxonMobil</font></strong>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil comes in close second among
investor-owned companies. In the past, ExxonMobil has been accused of <a href="http://www.skepticalscience.com/exxon-mobi-ceo-denies-climate-threat.html">downplaying the global warming threat</a> as well as funding groups that refute climate change. </font>
<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3. Saudi Aramaco</font></strong>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Third place goes to state-owned Saudi Aramco. Owned by Saudi Arabia,
Saudi Aramco holds the world’s largest oil field and is estimated to be
one of the world’s most valuable companies. </font>
<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4. BP</font></strong>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oil tycoon company BP comes in fourth place. Ironically, the corporation was one of the first to come out and <a href="http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/australia/corporate_australia/STAGING/local_assets/downloads_pdfs/a/Climate_Change.pdf">publicly support</a> scientific consensus on climate change. </font>
<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">5. Gazprom </font></strong>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Russia’s Gazprom, a state-owned company, rounds out the top five
dirtiest polluters. The company is the one of the largest extractors of
natural gas. It most recently <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/gazprom-vs-greenpeace-arctic-30/blog/47205/">was the target of an action</a> by Greenpeace activists protesting Russia’s oil drilling in the Arctic. </font></p></div></div></div></div>