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2021-05-27 Fifth Column

Atlantic Council Scholars Made Millions Lobbying for Putin-Backed Pipeline

[Washington Free Beacon] Two scholars at the Atlantic Council, the prominent foreign policy think tank that claims to staunchly oppose Russian influence, have raked in nearly $3 million lobbying in favor of a Russian pipeline that American officials worry will allow Vladimir Putin to increase his influence in Europe.

Since 2017, Richard Burt, an Atlantic Council board member, and Frances Burwell, a distinguished fellow, have lobbied for five European companies financing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will transport gas from Russia to Germany. In addition to their perches at the Atlantic Council, Burt and Burwell are partners at McLarty Inbound, a consulting group that lobbies for foreign companies.

Burt and Burwell have used their positions at the Atlantic Council to further their work at McLarty. Burt has defended the pipeline at public Atlantic Council events and reportedly pitched it in private discussions with colleagues at the think tank. Burwell defended Nord Stream in at least one major media interview where she was introduced as an Atlantic Council fellow, though not as a McLarty lobbyist.

The conflict of interest highlights the complexity of competing interests at the Atlantic Council, which gives its experts and board members wide berth and which employs several former ambassadors vigorously opposed to the pipeline. It raises the question of whether the Atlantic Council, founded in 1961 to strengthen NATO and the Atlantic alliance, promotes a set of core beliefs any longer or has devolved into a free-for-all of competing views.

Burt did not respond to a request for comment. Burwell said that the Atlantic Council as an institution does not take positions on policy issues, and that "its many fellows/researchers take diverse points of view."

Posted by 3dc 2021-05-27 02:42|| || Front Page|| [11 views ] Top
File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,

#1 From a purely environmental perspective Nord Stream transports natural gas and Keystone oil, so spills are entirely different. Gas 'spills' into the atmosphere and may cause global warming (and spills much more easily); oil spills onto land, where it is readily cleaned up, or into water, where it is not, but are easily spotted and tracked to their source.

Posted by Glenmore 2021-05-27 09:37|| 2021-05-27 09:37|| Front Page Top

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