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Russia Collusion exposed in 2018: Congressional report detailed ‘Russian Attempts to Influence’ & Fund Environmental Groups to Oppose Fracking in Europe & U.S.

The Russia “collusion” no one seems to want to remember. Here are excerpts from a 2-18 U.S. Congressional report from the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. It details how Russian

From March 1, 2018�� U.S. Congress Report: United States House of Representatives – Committee on Science, Space, and Technology – Russian Attempts to Influence U.S. Domestic Energy Markets by Exploiting Social Media Majority Report

 

Excerpt from 2018 Congressional Report: Fracking Threatens the Kremlin’s Agenda

Republicans and Democrats agree the Kremlin is manipulating environmental groups in an attempt to carry out their agenda

The Kremlin has a motive to disrupt U.S. energy markets and influence domestic energy policy, since American energy represents a direct threat to Russian energy interests. Russia’s efforts to influence U.S. energy policy are well documented in the public domain. U.S. presidential candidates, European officials, and the U.S. intelligence community have all publicly noted that Russia and its government corporations are funding a covert anti-fracking campaign to suppress the widespread adoption of fracking in Europe and the U.S., all in an effort to protect the influence of the Russian oil and gas sector.22

The substantial increase in domestic production has resulted in an abundant supply of American energy, which is increasingly making its way into the global marketplace. While this stands to provide substantial economic benefits to the U.S., it simultaneously represents a direct threat to Russian energy interests. First, an abundance of American supply in the global energy marketplace stands to reduce Russian market share and thus revenues generated from oil and gas activities. Second, by providing supply alternatives for European countries dependent on Russian supply and infrastructure, American energy stands to disrupt the Kremlin’s ability to leverage energy consumption for geopolitical influence.

Russia provides roughly 75 percent of the natural gas imported by countries in Central and Eastern Europe while the countries in Southeast Europe “receive almost all of their natural gas from Russia.” 17 “Russia’s Gazprom has acknowledged for the first time a threat to its dominant position in European gas market from an expected influx of liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced in the United States under [the Trump] administration.” 18 Shortly after this acknowledgment, U.S. LNG made its way to Poland 19 and Lithuania. 20 In fact, Poland recently signed a five-year deal with the United States to import liquefied natural gas into the country in an attempt to decrease dependency on Russian energy supplies. 21 …

As the threat of American energy continues to grow, so does the Kremlin’s incentive to influence energy operations in Europe and the United States. Moreover, as they have demonstrated, the Kremlin will use any and all tools at their disposal to preserve Russia’s dominant energy status and to maintain its stranglehold over Eastern and Central Europe. …

Former Secretary of State and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with access to intelligence reports, made a private speech in 2014, according to documents from WikiLeaks, which included statements about the struggles of dealing with Russian-backed environmental groups. According to a media report, Secretary Clinton said the following: “We [the State Department and the U.S.] were up against Russia pushing oligarchs and others to buy media.
We were even up against phony environmental groups, and I’m a big environmentalist, but these were funded by the Russians to stand against any effort, ‘Oh that pipeline, that fracking, that whatever will be a problem for you,’ and a lot of the money supporting that message was coming from Russia.”24 …

In January 2017, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report that contained “clear evidence that the Kremlin is financing and choreographing anti-fracking propaganda in the United States.” 25 The report found that the Russian-sponsored news agency RT (formerly Russian Today) “r[an] anti-fracking programing, highlighting environmental issues and the impacts on public health,” which “is likely reflective of the Russian Government’s concern about the impact of fracking and the U.S. natural gas production on the global energy market and the potential challenges to [Russian energy companies’] profitability,” such as state- controlled Russian energy giant Gazprom.26 …

A Republican staff report by the Senate suggests that Russian funds have been funneled through off-shore corporations and passed on to U.S.- based environmental activist organizations with the intent to effect political change. 27 …

More recently Senator Ben Cardin released a voluminous report on Russian manipulation of the media over decades. Specific to oil and gas, the Cardin report cited a “study by the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies [which] reports that the Russian government has invested $95 million in NGOs that seek to persuade EU governments to end shale gas exploration,” which illustrates how American energy directly clashes with the Russian energy agenda.28 Senator Cardin’s work reiterates that “according to NATO officials, Russian intelligence agencies also reportedly provide covert support to European environmental groups to campaign against fracking for natural gas, thereby keeping the EU more dependent on Russian supplies.”29

Additionally, as further evidence of Russian attempts to spread propaganda in the United States, U.S. Department of Justice officials have demanded that the U.S. based affiliate of RT register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).30 FARA requires that agents representing the interests of foreign governments in any political or quasi-political capacity disclose public communications aimed at influencing American political debate or public policy.31 Through local programs all over the world, RT and other news agencies operate as a government-funded arm of Russia in its attempts to destabilize and disrupt democratic institutions and the free market. Under FARA, the American people have the right to evaluate the “statements and activities of [persons acting as foreign agents] in light of their function as foreign agents.”32

To that end, the Kremlin is attempting to make, as Senator Cardin’s report states, “useful idiots” of unwitting environmental groups and activists in furtherance of its energy influence operations.33

End Excerpts

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2018: CFACT & Climate Depot’s billboard went up: — ‘Russia funneled Green groups millions of dollars to oppose fracking & cripple American energy. – How’s that for COLLUSION?’

2018 CFACT report: Russian efforts to disrupt U.S. energy markets exposed – By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D. – In January 2017, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a report stating there is “clear evidence that the Kremlin is financing and choreographing anti-fracking propaganda in the United States.”

 

2018: U.S. Energy Markets: The Real Russian Meddling the Media Ignores

2018: CFACT report: Real Russian collusion the MSM ignores– By Paul Driessen –

Driessen Excerpt: The US Senate “Billionaires’ Club” and Environmental Policy Alliance “From Russia with Love” reports, articles by investigative journalists like Ron Arnold and Lachlan Markay (here and here), studies by the US National Intelligence Director and Iowa State University, and a March 2018 report by the US House Science Committee reveal money laundering by Putin cronies and ongoing propaganda efforts by Russian media groups to undermine American drilling, fracking, pipeline and agricultural programs. … Hefty portions of Klein funds come from Russia: Rosneft, the Russian-government-owned oil and gas giant that is one of Wakefield’s largest clients; Spectrum Partners, a Moscow-based energy investment firm with major assets in Russian oil and gas; the IPOC Group, an international growth fund owned by Russian minister of telecommunications and Putin friend Leonid Reiman; and other Russian companies. (Other Sea Change donors include the Gates Foundation, eBay’s Omidyar Network Fund, David Rockefeller’s personal foundation, the Walmart Foundation and the extended Simons family.)

The Science Committee Report explains how the Russian government funnel money through surrogates to US environmentalist organizations to fund attacks on the fossil fuels industry. It also reveals how Russian operatives create and spread propaganda on US social media platforms, to manipulate American opinions about pipelines, fossil fuels, fracking and climate change.

Standing up to Putin means ditching Net-Zero (& Green New Deal) – ‘The West can’t win a geopolitical conflict…with an economy powered intermittently by wind & solar’ – Rupert Darwall: In late 2019, Boris Johnson banned commercial fracking. Earlier this month, the British government ordered that concrete be poured into the country’s two exploratory shale wells and for them to be abandoned. The move was blasted by Cuadrilla Resources CEO Francis Egan, who pointed out that the Bowland shale formation could supply 50 years of current U.K. gas demand. … Germany’s and the EU’s net-zero policies will deepen their dependence on Putin’s goodwill as they increase their exposure to unreliable wind and solar, phase out coal, and – in the case of Germany and Belgium – prematurely close their nuclear power stations. Strategically, that’s a win for Putin.

 

 

 

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Related: 

2015: Fake Mideast oilman traps Mariel Hemingway, Ed Begley in video sting

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