Posted on 04/21/2006 6:38:28 AM PDT by b2stealth
National PR-ity
// Moscow drafts a plan to influence the United States
The Kremlin has taken up the promotion of Russian interests in the United States head-on. The key role will be given to the Russian-U.S. Council for Business Cooperation (RUCBC) whose supervisory board will include high-ranking officials from the Russian president’s administration, ministers and prominent public figures. The Russian government asked the Finance Ministry to find sources to finance the NGO. However, it has already been suggested that big business contribute for the council’s activities. The first donation is expected to amount to $50 million. Work has in progress since the beginning of the year when Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an instruction to create a system to lobby Russia’s political and economic interests in the United States, Kommersant learnt. A source of Kommersant in the Russian government said that the government issued an internal instruction to request the Finance Ministry to submit suggestions on forms and ways to finance the Russian-U.S. Council for Business Cooperation (RUCBC).
The president’s administration is determined to use the NGO as a stronghold of Russian lobbyists in the United States, sources of Kommersant maintain. Backed up by new personnel and finances, the RUCBC is sure to become one of the most effective tools in championing Russia’s policy in the U.S. The Kremlin hopes that the Council for Business Cooperation will soon be turned into the basis for a new Russian propaganda machine, aimed at leading nations and built like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Long-term-wise, the Council for Business Cooperation is expected to lobby Russia’s major strategic interests in the United States. A special attention will be given to the creation and fostering strong informal relations with key figures of the American establishment, business elite and journalists.
The Russian-American Council for Business Cooperation was registered in the Russian United State Register of Legal Entities in January 2001 as “a nonprofit association of legal entities.” According to the data of the Russian Statistics Agency, the NGO was founded by Interprombank and the Inspace Consulting law firm. Other reports name the Tsentrosoyuzprodtorg company from Gorno-Altaysk as a co-founder. The Council for Business Cooperation specializes in escorting Russian businessmen in the United States. The organization is headed by Yuly Vorontsov, special representative of the U.N. Secretary General in the CIS, Soviet Ambassador to India in 1978 – 1983 and Russian Ambassador to the United States in 1994 – 1999.
Recent coolness in relations between Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush prompted the Russian president’s ex-aides to set up a lobbying service for Russia in the U.S. Disputes at Russian-U.S. talks on Iran and the accession to the WTO, the situation in the Middle East and the expansion of Washington’s presence in CIS countries are among other reasons for the Kremlin’s craving for lobbying in the United States.
An idea to create a lobbying agency to champion Russia’s interests in the West has been in the air for a number of years. Mikhail Lesin tried to bring it to life in late 1990s, the time of his tenure as Russian Press Minister. A need to put a spin on Russia’s image in the West was recalled a couple of years ago. The president’s administration came up with an initiative which was later promoted by Vyacheslav Surkov, a Kremlin political strategist. “A few different scenarios were drafted then on how it could be done,” a former employee of the Russian president’s administration said. “One of them suggested reviving an information system for the West, based on RIA Novosti’s facilities and setting up an English-language TV channel and a few think-tanks like Rand Corporation. A system like this exited at the time of the Soviet Novosti Press Agency.”
Some of the plans have been put into practice. The English-language Russia Today TV channel has been on air since last fall, and RIA Novosti’s budget has now come up to the notch of Novosti Press Agency’s heyday, or estimated $100 million. What is more, it seemed a decided matter a few months ago that RIA Novosti would secure a contract to set up a think-tank in the United States. Yet, it never happened. An American PR agency reported to Kommersant that they had been in talks on “PR-escorting a major image project for Russia” with Dmitry Klementyev, RIA Novosti’s New York representative, up to the end of the last year. “No other negotiations followed, though,” the agency told Kommersant.
A source of Kommersant in the Russian president’s administration maintains that a decision to restrict the scope of RIA Novosti’s activities in the United States was made “due to some technical problems and a large-scale image project there will be taken up by the Russian-U.S. Council for Business Cooperation.” Quite possibly, the organization will secure the project thanks to a close cooperation with Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasyev and Partners, a law firm founded by Nikolay Egorov, Vladimir Putin’s fellow-student at the law school of the Leningrad State University. The company has a representative office in the United States, so the Council for Business Cooperation will not have to be registered as an official lobbying organization. According to the information Kommersant managed to obtain, Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasyev and Partners will have an exclusive right to conclude contracts to fulfill the RUCBC’s orders. First two years will focus on attracting U.S. leading lobbying firms.
Nikolay Egorov will apparently become a co-chairman at the Russian-U.S. Council for Business Cooperation after the organization undergoes a major shake-up. Sergey Prikhodko, the Russian president’s aide, is reputed to become the second co-chairman. As the council will be under reorganization, its supervisory board will be extended by a number of high-ranking officials, such as the head of the president’s administration Sergey Sobyanin, his deputy Vladislav Surkov, first Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov. The Kremlin also considers boosting the board by renowned people of science and arts. Evgeny Velikhov, academician, Yury Bashmet, musician, Valery Gergiev, artistic director of the Mariinksy Theater, Alexander Vedernikov, artistic director of the Bolshoi Theater, Nikita Mikhalkov, film director, and Vladimir Solovyev, journalist, are main candidates to sit on the board.
The Council for Business Cooperation is supposed to be bankrolled not only by the state budget’s funds but also by “voluntary” donations of Russian businessmen. Heads of Russia’s leading state-controlled companies and successful oligarchic firms will also serve on the supervisory board. For a start, businessmen were offered to spend some $50 million on the organization’s needs, according to early estimates. Vnesheconombank, Russian Railways and some other companies have already filed applications to join the Russian-U.S. Council for Business Cooperation, Kommersant learnt. Vnesheconombank, the Finance Ministry’s agent, may even finance the organization directly if the ministry issues the instruction. Gazprom, Rosneft, Vneshtorgbank, Transneft, Severstal Group, RUSAL, TNK-BP, Interros, Rosoboronexport, Surgutneftegaz, LUKOIL, Aeroflot and major media holdings, First Channel, VGTRK and Gazprom Media, have also received an offer to take part in the NGO’s activities.
The Russian-U.S. Council for Business Cooperation did deny having plans to step up its efforts in the United States on Thursday. “Still, I would not claim that all the plans will be carried out,” a member of the council told Kommersant. The press service of Egorov, Puginsky, Aganasyev and Partners said they had no information on their role in creating lobbying companies in the United States. The Finance Ministry declined to comment. Vladimir Solovyev, a well-known journalist, said in an interview with Kommersant: “No one has asked me to enter the supervisory board of the RUCBC so far but I think the idea is sensible. Any state needs to further its interests in the world. Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the International Affairs Committee at the Federation Council, considers the plan drafted by the Kremlin to be right. “Our foreign interests must be promoted by professionals. We should recruit clever guys in every country where we are lobbying. A coordinating agency should be set up in Russia as there is no agency to assume these functions now.”
Bush does not know the consequences of his actions. Bush is hated by the real globalists because of the war on Terror and Iraq.
>One only has to look at the Iranian situation. Bush still >believes that Russia and China will come aboard with >sanctions, but there is NO way those two countries will >back that.
This is so true. History shows that every time Carter was soft with USSR, Soviet leaders were thinking US & West are too SOFT too Democratic to fight..
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