The Weekly Standard
April 12 2012
Russian Oligarch Hires Army of D.C. Lobbyists
2:31 PM, APR 12, 2012
– BY DANIEL HALPER
In just the last few months, Bidzina Ivanishvili, one of the world’s
richest men with an estimated $6.5 billion fortune, hired a small army
of PR consultants and lobbyists in Washington, including at least 7 of
Washington’s most prominent firms. And though Ivanishvili built his
business empire in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, he is, for the moment at
least, a man without a country, having renounced his French and
Russian citizenship and having been stripped of his Georgian
citizenship, where dual citizenship is not allowed.
Politico reports today that the firms working for the billionaire
businessman – including Patton Boggs, National Strategies, Downey
McGrath and a slew of others – have not filed under the Foreign Agents
Registration Act, the 1938 law that regulates efforts to influence
U.S. policy on behalf of a foreign government or political party,
raising a number of legal questions about the lobbying campaign.
Many more questions surround the goals of the billionaire’s Washington
activity. Late last month, Rep. Jim McDermott, the Washington Democrat
who stood shoulder to shoulder with Saddam Hussein on the eve of the
U.S. invasion, submitted a resolution filled with praise for
Ivanishvili and dripping with scorn for the current Georgian `regime,’
which has been unstintingly pro-American and boasts the largest
non-NATO contingent serving alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Ivanishvili’s business interests may tell part of the story. The
billionaire is the single largest private investor in Russia’s
state-owned gas giant Gazprom. He also holds a major stake in the
Russian oil company Lukoil. And he owns a bank and has massive real
estate holdings in Russia. Not surprisingly, Ivanishvili has offered
praise for Putin and his version of `democracy.’
Ivanishvili’s partners in Georgia have been even more strident in
calling for an end to the country’s efforts to join NATO and solidify
its place in the community of Western democracies.
The firms that have been enlisted in the effort have a history of
working for unsavory regimes, including Patton Boggs, which also
represents Beijing’s interests in Washington.
Still, at least one firm stands out as an odd choice. Peter Mirjianian
Public Affairs, led by the Democratic strategist of the same name, is
well known for representing Armenian interests in town, including the
Armenian Church of America and the Armenian National Committee of
America.
Ivanishvili’s coalition in Georgia draws heavily on anti-Armenian
sentiment in Georgia. Gubaz Sanikidze, leader of the National Forum
party, a partner of Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition, has warned
that `The Armenian Church is much stronger outside of Georgia and if
it gets the same status inside the country, Armenians will overrun
us.’
One of the founding members of Ivanishvili’s party, Manana Kobakhidze,
captured the anti-American, anti-liberal philosophy of the new
movement well when he condemned the Georgian government for `trying to
please America by protecting minorities…when somebody is trying to
build a democracy by destroying our Orthodox ethno-psychology and
ethics, who wants such a democracy?’
If Ivanishvili and his lobbyists succeed, Georgia’s democracy and
Georgia’s minorities may suffer yet another grievous setback.
From: A. Papazian
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/russian-oligarch-hires-army-dc-lobbyists_636936.html