ICYMI: Zarina Zabrisky Reports on Trump’s Chief of Staff’s Russian Ties
Republishing this investigation by Zarina Zabrisky, an American journalist in Ukraine, on the Russian connections of Susie Wiles, Trumps’s chief of staff
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Author’s note: This report was first published on November 10, 2024 — just days after the US election. Zarina Zabrisky, an American journalist covering the war in Ukraine, followed the lobbying work for Kremlin-connected oligarchs and Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in this guest investigation, which first appeared as two X/Twitter threads — part one and two. Links to source reporting included in body of text below. Reposting today with Wiles in the news.—hsc
INVESTIGATION: Zarina Zabrisky Reports on Trump’s Chief of Staff’s Russian Ties
Trump’s new Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, brings ties to Kremlin-connected oligarchs via her lobbying work. The implications for US interests are dire.
Before joining Trump’s 2024 campaign, Wiles was a co-chair for a firm that lobbied for Kremlin-linked oligarchs and Chinese surveillance companies. A lobbyist, who recommended Wiles to run Trump’s campaign, worked for a Russian oligarch with ties to Putin and Rosneft.
Wiles was a co-chair for Mercury Public Affairs. Yesterday, another Mercury lobbyist and a partner, Bryan Lanza, a former transition aide to Trump, told BBC that “the incoming administration will focus on achieving peace in Ukraine rather than enabling the country to gain back territory occupied by Russia.” A spokesperson for Trump's transition team later denied that Lanza spoke for Trump.
Both Wiles and Lanza lobbied for Chinese technology companies. The Chinese video surveillance company Hikvision has paid Mercury $5.5 million since 2015. Hikvision supplied surveillance tech used it to target the Uighur ethnic minority in China. Amnesty International found the company’s surveillance equipment was also being used in the West Bank.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johannacostigan/2024/11/09/magas-marriage-to-big-business---and-big-tech/
Lanza-Deripaska
In 2018, Lanza lobbied to remove sanctions from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s energy and aluminum firm conglomerate EN+ Group. The US Treasury Department had imposed sanctions on Deripaska and his companies.
Deripaska has said that he does not separate himself from the Russian state. He has also acknowledged possessing a Russian diplomatic passport, and claims to have represented the Russian government in other countries.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/kremlin-controlled-russian-bank-hires-trump-insider-as-a-lobbyist/
“Deripaska has been investigated for money laundering and has been accused of threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, and taking part in extortion and racketeering. There are also allegations that Deripaska bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman, and had links to a Russian organized crime group.”
Lanza did not represent Deripaska directly. He represented the former British energy minister, Lord Gregory Barker, the board chairman of EN+ Group. Deripaska’s ownership in the company was reduced from 70% to below 50% to evade US sanctions. EN+ was removed from the sanctions list in January 2019.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/06/latvian-banker-accused-of-aiding-north-korea/
In 2019, after Mercury successfully lobbied to removed sanctions, Rusal, the large aluminum company owned by Deripaska, purchased a 40% stake in a Kentucky plant.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/how-a-russian-billionaire-with-a-criminal-past-became-a-major-investor-in-lyft/
Lord Barker resigned as chairman of EN+ in March 2022, after Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, amid intense scrutiny of companies linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs, alleged by authorities in the US, EU and UK. The London Stock Exchange suspended trading in EN+ along with more than 30 other Russian-linked firms, in March 2022.
Lord Barker was listed as Mercury’s client but Lanza was not listed as lobbyist for Barker or EN+ Group on the disclosure form for Mercury. Lanza did disclose the client in a separate filing.
https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6170-Exhibit-AB-20180504-42.pdf
Lanza appeared on CNN between Oct 2017 — May 2018 as a Trump surrogate, attacking Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference, while representing a Russian firm seeking to make the US government drop the sanctions.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/06/latvian-banker-accused-of-aiding-north-korea/
Mercury has also undergone scrutiny over the past year for its role in the Ukrainian lobbying operation involving Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, in Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the election. The firm has denied wrongdoing.
Mercury lobbied on behalf of the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a nonprofit tied to former pro-Russian Ukrainian president Yanukovych. Mercury was recruited to improve Yanukovych’s image by future Trump campaign chairperson Paul Manafort.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/06/latvian-banker-accused-of-aiding-north-korea/
The European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECFMU) based in Brussels tied to Yanukovich's Party of Regions had contracts with Mercury in 2012. Mercury received $560,000 over 2 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Centre_for_a_Modern_Ukraine
Mercury worked to sway American public opinion in favor of the country’s pro-Russian government by placing positive articles in The NYT, WSJ and AP and undercutting American public sympathy for Yulia Tymoshenko, an imprisoned rival of then-President Yanukovych.
Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, directed two Washington lobbying firms, Mercury and the Podesta Group, between 2012 and 2014, to set up meetings between a top Ukrainian official and senators and congressman on influential committees involving Ukrainian interests. Manafort oversaw the lobbying efforts and spoke by phone to Mercury and the Podesta Group.
Manafort and Gates failed to disclose their work as foreign agents as required under federal law. Mercury also failed to register its lobbying work with the DoJ. Vin Weber, the principal for Mercury's Ukraine-related lobbying portfolio beginning in 2012, acted as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and foreign political party.
On April 28, 2017, Mercury retroactively filed with FARA within the Justice Department that it had been hired by the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. Mercury had filed its lobbying efforts with Congress under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. Files between Mercury and the Manafort and Gates firms connected to Yanukovich and his Party of Regions were subpoenaed by the Mueller special counsel investigation.
Mercury’s founder, Vin Weber, an influential Republican and former congressman, told the AP that his firm was aware of Manafort’s and Gates’ affiliation with Ukraine’s political party and said Gates never participated in Mercury’s lobbying work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Weber
In August 2016, a New York Times report claimed that secret ledgers showed $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Manafort from the Yanukovych administration.
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/15/trump-campaign-chiefs-ukrainian-connection-keeps-coming-up.html
Manafort had ties with Deripaska (indirectly represented by Mercury’s Bryan Lanza, see above.) Manafort used an intermediary to offer Deripaska private briefings about the election. Mueller’s team later noted in a March court filing that the intermediary “has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/12/politics/washington-lobbying-trump-era/index.html
Susie Wiles, now a Chief of Staff, led Trump’s campaign in Florida after she was introduced by Brian Ballard, Trump’s longtime lobbyist in Florida and a GOP fundraiser.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/12/politics/washington-lobbying-trump-era/index.html
Ballard-Yakobashvili
Ballard, who had lobbied for Trump in Florida and had since built a Washington practice, had represented a Russian oligarch and billionaire David Yakobashvili, closely connected with Putin and known for his involvement with Rosneft and defense industry complex in Russia.
Yakobashvili paid Ballard $450,000 through the first three quarters of 2018 to lobby the U.S. government on immigration and trade policy.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/01/ballard-partners-revolving-door-white-house/
Yakobashvili is an investor into Petrocas Energy Group, a Cyprus-based major petroleum company which owned over hundred gas stations chains in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and two oil terminals in Georgia.
In 2014, Russian state-owned Rosneft oil giant purchased 49% of the Petrocas shares. The controlling stake in Petrocas was retained by David Yakobashvili.
In 2020, after the US imposed sanctions on Rosneft over its dealings with Venezuela, Rosneft sold more than a third of its seaborne oil product exports to small trading firms, including Petrocas, in which Rosneft owned a 49% stake and Yakobashvili owned 51%.
Rosneft sold off the 49% stake in Petrocas due to the Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
https://civil.ge/archives/494557
The Petrocas Energy Group, was allegedly responsible for transporting Russian-sanctioned oil into Georgia, according to Anti-Corruption Movement. Ukraine accused Yakobashvili of providing material or financial assistance for activities that compromise or endanger Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence.
https://georgiatoday.ge/ukraine-sanctions-georgian-pro-russian-businessman/
Yakobashvili’s close business connections with Putin also require attention. He is a co-owner of the former poultry breeding facility in Rublevka, some of Russia’s most expensive real estate near Moscow. Putin’s estate in the Novo-Ogaryovoestate is nearby. 2 hectares could be worth over $22.7 million.
In the mid-2000s, the land has been gifted or sold at a symbolic price to Putin’s former bodyguards and their families by Gorki-2, in which Yakobashvili owned 29%, according to the last available report dated 2015.
Putin’s former security guards Zolotov, Klimentiev, and Dyuminand and their relatives are among the landowners.
https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/putins-bodyguards-rewarded-with-land-and-power
Landowners include an assistant to President Putin, a wife of Dmitry Medvedev's security chief, businessman Arkady Rotenberg, Putin’s childhood friend and close ally.
https://rublevka.proekt.media/person/agrokompleks-gorki-2/
In 2010, Yakobashvili sold the biggest Russian food producer Wimm-Bill-Dann to US PepsiCo. Wimm-Bill-Dann, built on the base of the poultry farm, is one of the largest producers of juices and dairy products in Russia. In 2011, the American PepsiCo Inc acquired Wimm-Bill-Dann for about $5.4 billion. This deal was the largest for the American giant outside the United States.
Yakobashvili served on the board of SFC Sistema, the largest diversified public financial corporation in Russia and the CIS, and one of the hundred largest defense companies in the world, supplying radio equipment to the Russian Ministry of Defense for 13 years.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, with the help of RTI Systems, deployed a system of radar stations along the Russian borders, capable of detecting air targets at long range.
https://munscanner.com/2022/03/etushenkov/
The owner of the RTI Systems concern is Vladimir Yevtushenkov, an oligarch close to Putin, ranked 41st in the ranking of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia in 2021. Yevtushenkov is the chairman of the board of directors and owner of 64% of the shares of AFK Sistema, the Russian corporation that owns the concern RTI Systems. Yevtushenko could be one of the intermediaries who introduced Yanukovych to to the instigators of hostilities in Donbas in 2014.
https://munscanner.com/2022/03/etushenkov/
Yakobashvili is present at meetings with Putin
https://riamediabank.ru/media/5743093.html?context=list&list_sid=list_137674448
In addition, he invested $10 million in the social media platform Telegram.
https://centrasia.org/newsA.php?st=1561622460
Ballard-Trump
Ballard is closer to Trump than any other lobbyist in town. They have known each other for nearly 30 years. Ballard worked as Trump’s Florida lobbyist.
During Trump’s presidency, Ballard helped clients get their way with the Trump administration. Ballard was one of the top fundraisers in the country for Trump’s campaign and continued to raise millions for his reelection campaign.
Ballard-Wiles
In September 2016, Ballard sent Susie Wiles to run Trump’s campaign in Florida.
Ballard Partners worked on lobbying a case involving Rosneft, helping an Indian company Reliance Industries Ltd to escape sanctions for importing Venezuela crude oil. Reliance, the largest cash-paying client of PdVSA, a state-owned Venezuelan oil company, purchased PdVSA’s crude oil through Rosneft Trading SA, the Geneva-based trading unit of the Russian oil giant, in order to avoid the US sanctions.
Reliance paid Ballard Partners $775,000 and $330,000 to lobby the US state and treasury departments, the White House, and the Senate, on issues pertaining to the sanctions, as reported in Caravan Magazine and Reuters.
With Putin-linked oligarchs and lobbyists entangled at the White House levels, the implications for US interests are dire.
Demanding transparency and accountability is critical, while we still have the system of checks and balances in place.—Zarina Zabrisky, November 10, 2024
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Photo: Susie Wiles in 2020, Wikipedia
It's just all so humiliating...after decades of devoting US Government resources and billions of our tax dollars to studying and staving off the Soviets and Russian attempts to infiltrate & embarrass us, that Putin was able to stroll right into the White house with these jokers. I'm guessing that, after the bribes and money laundering schemes were so well received by Republicans, the first feeble brains washed in Putin's asymmetric mind war were the GOP's and the Diaper Don's.
It's just too much to comprehend during one short reading. I estimate it will take me a day to read it and the links to really understand. Thank you so much.