Russia Paid Democrats For Waiving Sanctions On Russian Pipeline

Lobbying fuels push for Russian pipeline as Biden weighs in – Open Secrets, 2021/05/20

The controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is getting a push from foreign interests and Washington lobbyists as President Joe Biden weighs the U.S. response to the project.

The Biden administration imposed sanctions Wednesday on thirteen vessels and four entities involved in construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But the administration waived sanctions on Nord Stream AG and its chief executive due to “U.S. national interests,” Axios reported earlier this week.

My link is here… Biden Administration To Waive Sanctions To Build Pipeline From Russia To Germany

Now to the money…

Companies involved with the pipeline spent more than $1 million lobbying on sanctions and other issues related to the project through the first three months of 2021. 

Nord Stream 2 AG spent $840,000 on lobbying in the first quarter of 2021, on pace to surpass its nearly $3.6 million lobbying spending last year. The Swiss firm is wholly-owned by Russia’s state-run energy firm Gazprom. Alexei Miller, Gazprom’s executive chairman, is longtime Putin ally, as is Nord Stream CEO Matthias Warnig. 

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Other foreign firms are also dispatching lobbyists to advocate for the pipeline. Five foreign companies partnering on the project — Austria’s OMV AG, the Netherlands’ Shell International, France’s ENGIE, and Germany’s Wintershall and Uniper SE — hired lobbyists at McLarty Inbound to lobby the State Department and the National Security Council.

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McLarty managing partner Richard Burt, the former U.S. Ambassador to West Germany and a member of several influential Washington think-tanks, reported lobbying for a slate of foreign companies that have partnered on the project on “Russian sanctions issues” and “natural gas as an element of European energy security.” Burt donated $2,000 to Biden’s 2020 campaign and $10,000 to pro-Biden super PAC Unite the Country while he was a registered lobbyist for foreign companies partnering with Nord Stream on the pipeline. Biden’s campaign had not refunded Burt’s money at the time of publication, more than 6 months after the donations were given, despite pledging to reject lobbyist donations.

I am old enough to remember when President Trump was Putin’s lackey. He approved sanctions on the project.