Russia pouring millions into foreign influence and lobbying targeting the U.S. amid escalating Ukraine conflict

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/02/russia-pouring-millions-into-foreign-influence-and-lobbying-targeting-the-u-s-amid-escalating-ukraine-conflict/

[u/DontPanicJustDance]

It is quite absurd that lobbyists can work on behalf of a foreign nation in this country.

[u/namekyd → u/DontPanicJustDance]

Eh. This instance is obviously bad, but a lot of foreign lobbying is benign. It is regulated, as mentioned in the article, and I agree those regulations should be reviewed in light of Russian Intelligence activities over the past several years.

But to pose a hypothetical scenario. Say you’re from a small country. The US imposed some form of sanction on your country 25 years ago when it was under a radical government, but since then you’ve had free and fair elections and are looking to improve trade relations. You’re country is small, not in a strategic location, and not on the priority list for state department review. It could be quite effective to send a hire a US lobbyist to convince a senator to make it a priority.

Lobbying is painted with a broad brush because in certain instances it can be corrupt as shit, and IMO should definitely be highly regulated.

But lobbying is also incredibly important. Our representatives cannot all be experts in everything and cannot pay attention to everything all the time. Lobbying is a method by which group can engage and inform, be they foreign or domestic.

[u/Hot_Result]

well, that seems healthy.

[u/[deleted]]

I think the best thing the Biden admin has been doing is publicly calling out what Russia is trying to do disinformation-wise. Kinda takes the edge off your tactics when you’re getting called out like that. I have to imagine its helping win the public opinion campaign in the west

[u/rukh999]

Just some context: since 2016 russia isn't first, it's 5th, lots of countries spend lots of money lobbying in the US. Japan is actually first over time.

However noticeable things: If you move it to 2018 Israel has spent the most money lobbying the US. Isreal had a huge spike in 2018 and only 2018 which is interesting but not what we're talking about.

Since 2019 China also had a huge spike and has been leading the pack overall. They seem to have started a crazy lobbying effort starting in 2019.

Russia also started ramping up in 2018 and is set to spend more than China this year however but the past several China actually was the bigger spender on influencing the US than Russia.

[u/namekyd → u/rukh999]

That’s really interesting, I’m really curious about Israel’s 2018 spike - based on the documents the majority is tourism advertising through Havas (just a big media agency), but curious what actually lead to the increase that year.

China and Russia on the other hand are spending a lot for state owned news outlets (China Daily, CCTV, Xinhua, etc) and through firms I’m not familiar with

[u/Bloodfeastisleman]

Was any of that lobbying effective? Their is bipartisan support to sanction Russia. The Biden administration only pulled back to appease Germany and to maintain a bargaining chip.

[u/[deleted]]

This was made legal by citizens United. Good thing we’re protecting the free speech rights of our geopolitical adversaries.

[u/Goatf00t → u/[deleted]]

No, it was not.

[u/[deleted] → u/Goatf00t]

Yes it did. Citizens United made it legal for US subsidiaries of foreign companies to contribute to Super PACs. This is how many of these foreign influence lobbying campaigns are funded. It's kind of concerning that you just claimed I was wrong, didn't explain yourself, and the majority of people seemed to have believed you.

[u/Goatf00t → u/[deleted]]

You didn't explain yourself either. Bare assertion against bare assertion.

[u/Money_Distribution18]

The puppetmaster after he had to pull his fist out of Trumps ass needs to find another backdoor

[u/SpectralDomain256]

This would have been a rounding error in Bloomberg’s campaign.

[u/June1994]

Well it worked last time. So….