General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRecon campaigns awash in Russian money.
Who knew that the result of Citizens United would be that American elections would be awash in Russian money?
All a hostile nation needs to do now is invest in an American corporation and they can flood democracy with anti-democracy malign influence.
Speaker Mike Johnson is being paid by 3 Russian Oligarchs via American Ethane.
Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev.
https://www.newsweek.com/house-speaker-mik
yardwork
(61,859 posts)Which is one reason we're also awash in guns.
mopinko
(70,461 posts)RandomNumbers
(17,663 posts)for quite some time now.
Skittles
(153,470 posts)I bet every fucking repuke is on the Russia payroll.
Emrys
(7,303 posts)Through Igor Levitin, Alexey Mordashov, Arkady Rotenberg, Gennady Timchenko, and Alexander Voloshin, Nikolaev is a partner and close associate of numerous persons in Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
...
His son Andrey Nikolaev ... lived in the United States as a student at Columbia University in New York City during 2016 and was a volunteer at Donald Trump's headquarters during his Presidential Campaign in 2016. While at Columbia University, Andrey Nikolaev was very active as a leader in the university's Republican (GOP) community who met with Mike Cernovich.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Nikolaev
Only sanctioned by Ukraine, heavily involved in various Russian sanctions-busting initiatives since 2014.
Mikhail Yuryev died in 2019, so that info's out of date, and in the wrong tense anyway, as is the whole tweet, because Newsweek's only talking about donations to Johnson from 2018. He did found American Ethane with former Kremlin Chief of Staff Alexander Voloshin and was a major shareholder at the time of the donations.
Andrey Kunatbaev seems a relatively minor player compared to Nikolaev, having served in the Duma.
I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many other links involving Republicans once you go digging, such as this from 2019:
* Former aides to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign have been hired to lobby for a Russian-owned ethane company.
* American Ethane Company is one of the largest gas companies of its kind, and is partially owned by multiple billionaires with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
* The lobbying group is called Turnberry Solutions, which shares a name with Trump's golf course in Scotland.
https://www.businessinsider.com/former-trump-campaign-aides-lobbying-for-gas-company-backed-by-russians-2019-2?r=US&IR=T
live love laugh
(13,269 posts)laws should not be acceptable where there is evidence of treason.
This should be investigated along with the others who are on the take.
lindysalsagal
(20,839 posts)dalton99a
(81,797 posts)Mike Johnson's Campaign Contributions From Company Tied to Russia
Oct 27, 2023 at 8:20 AM EDT
A group of Russian nationals were able to donate to newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson's campaign in 2018 by funneling the money through a U.S. company.
The Texas-based American Ethane company previously donated tens of thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Louisiana Republicans including Johnson, who was voted by the House to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker on Wednesday following three weeks of GOP chaos in the lower chamber.
While American Ethane was run in 2018 by American John Houghtaling, 88 percent of the firm was owned by three Russian nationalsKonstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev.
Johnson's previous Russian campaign donations have been brought up as people criticize the Republican following his election to House Speaker, a position which is second in line to the presidency behind the vice president.
...
uponit7771
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