Tatiana Kozyreva — Thursday, September 29, 2016, 2:56 p.m
Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs have played the lobbying card of the United States of America since the first years of Ukraine’s independence.
They are ready to pay for the expensive services of American lobbyists in order to avoid international sanctions or criminal prosecution.
Thus, Viennese prisoner Dmytro Firtash laid out almost a million dollars in order to “soften” his responsibility before the law in the state of Illinois, where the Ukrainian oligarch is accused of bribing Indian officials.
In order to obtain an American visa, lobbyists were also hired by former People’s Deputy Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, who is not allowed to enter the United States.
Oleksandr Tymoshenko lobbied for the release of his imprisoned wife and international sanctions against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Paul Manafort engaged in counter-lobbying for Yanukovych’s entourage.
It was the well-known American political technologist who helped to transfer 2.2 million dollars at once to two lobbying companies for “whitening the reputation” of Yanukovych without registering such services with the US Department of Justice, thus circumventing US law.
Such “ingenuity” cost Paul Manafort the position of head of Donald Trump’s campaign headquarters and possible criminal liability for tax evasion.
In order to find out who in Ukraine and for what purpose uses the services of American lobbyists, “Ukrainian Pravda” launches a series of materials “Battle for Washington”.
The first part – “Pinchuk’s Lobby” – concerns the representation of the interests of the oligarch in the Ukrainian parliament and in the circle of the US presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton.
Pinchuk lobby
Viktor Pinchuk has been holding the YES international conference for thirteen years in a row.
Among the guests of this event every year are influential world politicians. In different years, the forum was visited by Hillary and Bill Clinton, former Prime Minister of Great Britain Tony Blair and others.
However, as it turned out, Pinchuk spares no effort not only to introduce the world elite to the Ukrainian public.
The businessman also promotes Ukrainian politicians in Washington.
At least this conclusion can be reached if you carefully study the reports of American lobbying companies that are submitted to the Department of Justice.
This year, Victor Pinchuk paid $40,000 to American lobbyists at the expense of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne for organizing a series of meetings for the Ukrainian parliamentarian from the BPP faction, Olga Bielkova.
The document also mentions Pavlo Ryzanenko, who is also a member of the presidential faction.
Olha Bielkova and Pavlo Ryzanenko first received deputy mandates in 2012. In the previous, 7th, convocation, they represented Vitaliy Klitschko’s UDAR faction in the parliament.
Bielkova, as deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety, takes care of gas sector issues.
Instead, Ryzanenko deals mainly with the banking sector as a member of the parliamentary committee on financial policy and banking activities.
His area of responsibility also includes issues of privatization. Ryzanenko is the deputy chairman of the Special Control Commission of the Verkhovna Rada on Privatization.
The names of BPP faction deputies Olga Belkova and Pavel Ryzanenko appear in the report of American lobbyist Doug Schon to the US Department of Justice dated May 16, 2016.
As stated in the document, lobbyists conducted negotiations with 76 people on the order of Viktor Pinchuk for deputy Olga Belkova.
The list includes mostly senators, congressmen and American journalists. 72 of them, however, did not agree to a tete-a-tete with Belkova. As a matter of fact, only four meetings took place.
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So, on April 6, 2016, in Washington, Belkova met with Samuel Charap, director of Russian and Eurasian programs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
On April 12, the deputy had a busy schedule with three meetings at once.
Bielkova held meetings with Liz Zentos, director of Eastern European affairs at the US National Security Council, and her colleague Eric Chiaramella, who works on the Ukrainian issue.
The report also mentions a meeting with Michael Kimmage, who is on the State Department’s policy planning staff.
On the same day, Belkova, together with Pavel Ryzanenko, visited David Kremer, representing the McCain Institute.
Rizanenko himself, in a comment to the UP, assures that he “came at the invitation of Bielkova” to the meeting organized by the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation.
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The MP of the BPP faction mentions the trip to the USA in early April, on the dates specified by the lobbyists, on her own Facebook page, however, mostly in the context of the Global Parliamentary Conference.
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Her posts also mention a meeting with the ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, but not a single word about the persons mentioned in the reports of American lobbyists.
“I met with them as a member of parliament,” the deputy confirms the meeting that took place in Washington.
However, he immediately denies the fact of payment for lobbying services by Viktor Pinchuk: “I did not know about any such agreements. I was there (in Washington – UP) at the official invitation of the Atlantic Council.”
At the same time, the deputy from the presidential faction of the BPP does not deny contact with lobbyist Doug Shawn.
“I simply asked him, ‘Who do you know from the field of energy?’ and they gave me a list . ” In addition, the deputy assures: “I considered it a friendly request, and Doug simply framed me , “ she commented to UP.
From managers to deputies
Before receiving the deputy mandate in 2012, Olha Bielkova worked for four years as the director of international projects of the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation, in particular, she managed the WorldWideStudies project.
It was while launching this program of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation that Bielkova met Doug Schon: “He was a consultant for the foundation – we contacted about cooperation with American universities , “ Bielkova says.
Participants in the WorldWideStudies program of the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation are three current members of the VRU, in particular, two BYU residents – Oleksiy Ryabchyn and Alyona Shkrum, and a representative of the People’s Front bloc, Nataliya Katser-Buchkovska.
The latter in the previous convocation of the VRU was an assistant to deputy Bielkova.
Two of the three “graduates” of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation program, Ryabchyn and Katser-Buchkovska, as well as Bielkova, are members of the committee on the fuel and energy complex, nuclear policy and nuclear support, which in particular considers issues related to Victor Pinchuk’s business interests.
“I’m in the committee dealing with the direction of gas. I have one agenda – to promote our 4-5 draft laws, that’s why I cooperate with Naftogaz of Ukraine and Ukrgazvydobuvannya, “ says Bielkova.
In April of last year, the parliament implemented “changes to the laws on strengthening the transparency of extractive industries”, which were initiated by Olha Bielkova. Forty amendments of the deputy from the BPP were taken into account in the law “On the natural gas market”.
As Ukrainian Pravda previously wrote, the former managers of Viktor Pinchuk also work at Ukrgazvydobuvannya.
In particular , Oleksandr Romanyuk, deputy chairman of Ukrgazvydobuvannya, who was previously an adviser to the general director of the Pinchuk East One group.
Sources of “Ukrainian Pravda” in the entourage of President Poroshenko assured at the beginning of August that Pinchuk, thanks to his influence on the management of the company, wants to gain control over the most promising deposits of the state enterprise.
Details are in the text ” LLC with chimeras. Friends of the president and Zlochevskyi share oil and gas deposits “.
Viktor Pinchuk’s press service left questions about the state-owned enterprise “Ukrgazvydobuvannya” unanswered.
Instead, she provided “Ukrainian Pravda” with a written comment from lobbyist Doug Schon regarding organized meetings for Ukrainian deputies paid for by the Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne.
In contrast to Olga Bielkova’s statements about her own initiative in communicating with the lobbyist, the American Sean stated: “Mr. Pinchuk asked Doug Sean to introduce Deputy Bielkova to lawmakers and state officials”, “Doug Sean’s company organized 3 or 4 meetings for People’s Deputies of Bielkova and her colleagues – of another people’s deputy”, – stated in the letter sent by the press service of Viktor Pinchuk to the UP.
Old friends
Leonid Kuchma’s son-in-law, according to reports to the US Department of Justice, has been using the services of Douglas Schon at a cost of $40,000 per month since 2011.
The American lobbyist positions himself as “one of the most influential consultants in the US Democratic Party camp over the last thirty years.”
Sean’s clients include New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, US President Bill Clinton and the first female presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Most of the meetings that Shawn personally organized for Viktor Pinchuk are from the Clintons’ entourage.
Most often, the name of Melanie Vervier appears in the lobbyist’s reports. The Women’s Ambassador-at-Large was an assistant to US President Bill Clinton and Chief of Staff to First Lady Hillary Clinton.
In 2012, it was through Melanie Vervier that Doug Shawn lobbied for a personal meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Arseniy Yatsenyuk shortly before the parliamentary elections, where “Batkivshchyna” combined with “Front of Change” won 102 parliamentary seats.
In the same year, through the mediation of Vervier, Sean arranged for Hillary Clinton to meet directly with Viktor Pinchuk.
The Viktor Pinchuk Foundation is regularly mentioned in the list of Clinton Foundation donors.
According to the foundation’s annual reports, the Ukrainian businessman transferred $8.1 million to the Clinton family. According to The Wall Street Journal’s calculations, until 2014, Ukrainians were the most generous donors to the Clinton Foundation .
The Ukrainian oligarch’s “investments” do not go unnoticed by the Clinton family.
In October 2012, Viktor Pinchuk was among the guests at Bill Clinton’s 65th birthday, and in September 2013, Hilary Clinton gave a speech at the YES conference, which Viktor Pinchuk organized at the Livadia Palace.
The Pinchuk Foundation is a donor to the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also attended the annual event in New York last fall.
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Olha Bielkova also attended the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting twice.
” We made a commitment regarding the WorldWideStudies student program , “ Belkova explained in a comment to the UP.
The WorldWideStudies initiative of the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation appears on the Clinton Foundation website. According to the official portal of the Clinton family, she “seeks to train a new generation of Ukrainian leaders and professionals in order to modernize Ukraine and solve the problems of the 21st century.”
For a hedonistic purpose, Viktor Pinchuk undertook to spend 29 million dollars over 5 years. In fact, investments in “promising youth” since 2009 have not exceeded 2 million dollars.
The Ukrainian oligarch’s long-term investment in the lobby will be able to pay off soon.
Provided that the Clinton family becomes the host of the White House for the second time .
Tetyana Kozyreva, for UP
Newsessentials Blog 
Posted on June 20, 2024
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