House of Cards: US Congress Makes Money on Ukraine Crisis Ukraine searches for energy security. It seems the countrys biggest gas seekers are seeking funding from the US congress. And that means figures with close links to the likes of the US Secretary of State and the US Vice President have taken up positions on the board no doubt in the hope that some family strings can be pulled back in Washington. For some top US officials Ukraine is not just about politics. It’s about business for families and friends. But one connection leads to another and the business is now finding its way into the US Congress. A week after Vice President Joe Biden’s son joined the board of Ukraine’s largest gas producer Burisma, Secretary John Kerry’s former Senate Chief of Staff signed on to lobby congress on behalf of that same Ukrainian energy company. Another gentleman from ‘Team Kerry’ joined Burisma: Devon Archer who was once John Kerry’s advisor and bundler in his presidential campaign. These people are no strangers to each other, Devon Archer and Joe Biden’s son have worked as business partners with John Kerry’s son-in-law Christopher Heinz. Oh yes! And Burisma, their new employer, is controlled by Nikolay Zlochevsky, a former Ukrainian government minister. All these sons and friends of US officials say “they’re on their own”, they’re disconnected from the decision makers in Washington. But of course nobody can stop them benefitting from the polices adopted in the buildings around here (speaking from Washington D.C.). Members of Congress are already writing letters asking to provide US funding for Ukraine’s domestic energy production. Here’s one of the senators (Edward Markey): “I think if we are going to be helping them with new technologies, and we should, we should have a telescoped time frame that we create then, for a doubling of gas production inside of Ukraine. And we should set those goals, set benchmarks and then let’s meet them.” And to help us make sense of this House of Cards, where one connection leads to another, where its all business, and its all personal, here’s Andrew Craig. Andrew, it’s not just about lobbying for this one particular firm in Ukraine, right? A US state department person told Congress Tuesday that Ukraine’s entire gas supply and production system is corrupt and needs fixing. And the US, of course, can ‘help’. And one can only wonder what US companies and what individuals would benefit from that ‘fixing? What do you think? ‘Well we don’t have to wonder too long because what we’ve seen is a scandal here. Well-connected relatives and cronies of very influential officials are already on board. And its quire reminiscent of what happened after Iraq when there were all kinds of conferences on how Americans and American companies could make money out of the situation.’ Buying influence in Washington is not called corruption; in America its called tapping into new opportunities. #SaveDonbassPeopleFromUkrArmy #SaveDonbassPeopleFromUkrainianArmy #SaveDonbassPeople #UkraineCrisis #UkrainianCrisis #SaveDonbassChildrenFromUkrArmy
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 10:57:01 +0000