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By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - As U.S. lawmakers plot to stop
one of Moscow's most important projects in Europe, the Nord
Stream 2 pipeline, lobbyists supporting it are busier than ever
but disclosing few details of their work, according to
government filings and current and former U.S. officials.
The pipeline linking Russian gas fields to Western Europe
has become a lightning rod of contention in U.S.-Russia
relations, with the Trump administration concerned it would
dangerously expand the region’s energy dependence on Moscow but
backers, including in Europe, saying the gas is needed.
U.S. President Donald Trump has already signed a sanctions
bill that delayed construction on the $11 billion project,
wholly-owned by Russia's state-run Gazprom and headed
by Alexei Miller, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir
Putin. But lawmakers fearful the measures are not enough to
prevent the pipeline’s completion are contemplating further
action.
Nord Stream 2 AG has paid lobbyists at BGR Group, Roberti
Global LLC, and Sweeney & Associates a combined $1.69 million
during the first half of this year, according to Senate records.
That is more than double the amount during the same period a
year ago, and more than all of 2018, the first full year the
project lobbied in Washington.
But exactly who the lobbyists meet with is a mystery because
they have not registered with the Department of Justice under
the Foreign Agent Registration Act, a law passed in 1938 to
limit the influence of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia in U.S.
politics. Under FARA, lobbyists must disclose every meeting with
U.S. officials, along with the materials they distribute.
Instead, the Nord Stream 2 lobbyists have registered under
the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act, a law that amended FARA by
allowing lobbyists for foreign companies or individuals to
report much less information as long as their work is not
intended to benefit a foreign government.
Representatives for Nord Stream 2 and the lobbying companies
did not respond to requests for comment. But Nord Stream 2 has
characterized itself as a commercial, not political, project.
A senior Trump administration official took issue with that,
saying the lobbyists are seeking to further Moscow's national
interests.
"The fact that you’ve got people working for Gazprom, which
is essentially the Russian state, you know to manipulate our
processes … it’s crazy," the official said, asking not to be
named discussing the issue.
The Department of Justice, which handles FARA registrations,
did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Lobbyists for Nord Stream 2’s foreign opponents, by
contrast, have registered under FARA. Yorktown Solutions LLC,
for example, which lobbies for Ukraine's state-owned Naftogaz
and its partner companies against the pipeline, is among them,
according to FARA records.
Andriy Kobolyev, Naftogaz's chief executive told Reuters in
an email that company representatives travel to Washington about
once a month to provide updates on the status of Nord Stream 2
and discuss how to stop the pipeline.
Nord Stream 2 will double the capacity of an existing line
to Germany under the Baltic Sea to 110 billion cubic meters of
gas per year, enough to supply 26 million households. It would
circumvent U.S. ally Ukraine, depriving it of potentially
billions of dollars in transit fees, and compete with U.S.
efforts to sell liquefied natural gas into Europe.
U.S. senators Ted Cruz, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a
Democrat, are among the pipeline’s biggest opponents in Congress
and are pushing new sanctions measures that would target
insurers of Gazprom vessels that would lay the last 100 miles
(160 km) of pipe in Danish waters, where unexploded bombs from
World War II lie in the pipeline’s path.
Neither senator responded to a request for comment.
Nord Stream 2 backers say Germany and other European
countries need Russian gas, and Germany has threatened
retaliatory action if U.S. sanctions stop the project.
Austria's OMV, German firms Uniper and
Wintershall, Royal Dutch Shell and France's
Engie provide half the project’s the long-term
financing.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; editing by Richard Valdmanis and
Marguerita Choy)