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Caught Our Eye

Gazprom subsidiary lobbied against Russia sanctions bill

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Aug. 9, 2017

Days after President Donald Trump reluctantly signed a Russia-sanctions bill into law, a Gazprom subsidiary disclosed that it hired lobbyists to oppose the measures last month.

Nord Stream 2 AG hired Capitol Counsel on July 1 to lobby on the bill, according to a disclosure form filed yesterday. The lobbying firm assigned Bob Brooks, former chief of staff to ex-Reps. James McCrery (R-La.) and Jay Dickey (R-Ark.), and Warren Tryon, a former House Financial Services Committee staffer, to the contract.

Nord Stream 2 AG, which is behind the proposed Nord Stream 2 pipeline to transport natural gas from Russia to the European Union, is wholly owned by Gazprom, which is private but whose largest owner is the Russian government.

This isn't Capitol Counsel's first time representing a Russian state-controlled organization. In 2014, the lobbying firm worked as a foreign agent on behalf of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a government sovereign-wealth fund.