By Eli Clifton and Ben Freeman – The Guardian
Some of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists provide their services to Ukraine for free, but they also have financial incentives for helping the country.
This article was co-published with Responsible Statecraft.
Some of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists provide their services to Ukraine for free, but at the same time collect millions in fees from Pentagon contractors profiting from the country’s war with Russia.
In the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s internationally condemned decision to invade Ukraine, there was an outpouring of support for the besieged nation from virtually every industry in the United States. But arguably one of the most crucial industries to come to Ukraine’s aid has been Washington’s powerful lobbying industry.
The invasion has led some of the major players in the influence industry to do the unthinkable: lobby for free. While the influence industry may have altruistic reasons for representing Ukraine pro bono, some lobbying firms also have economic incentives to help Ukraine: they have made millions by lobbying arms manufacturers that could profit from the war.
The rise of pro bono lobbyists for Ukraine.
U.S. law requires agents of foreign principals engaged in political activities to publicly disclose their relationship on a regular basis under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara). Twenty-five registered agents have agreed to represent Ukrainian interests pro bono since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before the war, only 11 Fara registrants worked on behalf of Ukrainian interests.
“I don’t recall a comparable increase in pro bono work for any foreign principals,” stated David Laufman, a partner at the law firm Wiggin and Dana, which previously oversaw Fara enforcement at the Justice Department.
Many of these new pro-bono Ukrainian lobbyists are pushing for greater U.S. military support for the Ukrainian military. As one Fara registrant explained, they aim to “pressure members of the U.S. government to increase U.S. Department of Defense spending on equipment-related contracts and other efforts that will help the Ukrainian military’s ability to succeed in its fight against the Russian military.”
While many of these pro-bono lobbyists may be doing this work out of pure solidarity with Ukraine, some of the companies working pro bono for Ukraine have an added incentive.
Before winning the speakership of the new Republican Congress, Rep. Kevin McCarthy warned that Republicans would not pass a “blank check” for aid to Ukraine once they took power. But, just last week, the GOP’s biggest fundraiser agreed to provide pro-bono aid to loosen the congressional noose on Ukraine.
On February 16, former Senator Norm Coleman, a senior advisor to the law firm Hogan Lovells, filed Fara paperwork revealing that he is a member of a pro-bono lobbyist for a foundation controlled by Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk. Coleman oversaw the raising and spending of more than $260 million in funds supporting Republican congressional candidates in the 2022 congressional elections.
Coleman, who has extensive experience lobbying for foreign interests thanks to his longtime role as an agent for Saudi Arabia, was already busy working for Ukraine. Emails from Feb. 4, disclosed as part of Coleman’s Fara disclosures, revealed that he had requested help from Senators Lindsey Graham and Thom Tillis’ chiefs of staff to organize an event on Capitol Hill “in order for members of Congress to better understand the horrific loss of life and tragic agony that the people of Ukraine have experienced over the course of the last year as a direct result of Russian war crimes” and “to do everything possible to ensure continued support. strong, bipartisan support for the truly heroic efforts that this administration and Congress have made to provide essential military and economic assistance to Ukraine.”
Although Hogan Lovells does this work pro bono, two of the firm’s paying clients, Looking Glass Cyber Solutions and HawkEye 360, have extensive contracts with the Department of Defense and are interested in the Ukraine conflict.
Looking Glass, which paid Hogan Lovells $200,000 in 2022, has a five-year contract with the Defense Department to “provide tailored cyber threat intelligence data and improve the mission effectiveness of U.S. military cyber threat analysts and operators” and writes on its website about the role of such threats in Russia’s military strategy.
HawkEye 360, which also paid $200,000 to Hogan Lovells in 2022, is likewise a Department of Defense contractor specializing in radio signal detection and geolocation. Its detection network conducted analysis in Ukraine, and its website boasts that it has identified GPS jamming in Ukraine, which appears to be part of Moscow’s “integration of electronic warfare tactics into the Russian military operation to further degrade Ukraine’s self-defense capabilities.”
Hogan Lovells did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
BGR
BGR Government Affairs (BGR), a lobbying and communications firm, began working pro bono for two Ukrainian interests last May. The contracts are with Vadym Ivchenko, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, and Elena Lipkivska Ergul, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
In 2022, BGR earned more than half a million dollars lobbying Pentagon contractors, some of whom are already profiting from the Ukraine war. Raytheon, for example, which paid BGR $240,000 to lobby on its behalf in 2022, according to OpenSecrets, has already won more than $2 billion in government contracts related to the Ukraine war.
In fact, two days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a BGR advisor was publicly calling for increased military aid to Ukraine in the face of Putin’s recognition of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics as independent states.
“Militarily, the United States and NATO allies need to get much more serious about helping Ukraine defend itself,” Kurt Volker, BGR senior advisor and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, wrote in an article published by the Center for European Policy Analysis (Cepa).
His article, “Buckle up: this is just the first step,” was promoted on the BGR website. Cepa did not disclose Volker’s affiliation with BGR in the article.
“BGR has no conflict of interest and is proud of its work on behalf of Ukraine and all of its clients,” BGR president Jeffrey H Birnbaum said in a statement in response to questions about whether his work posed any such conflicts.
Mercury
Mercury Public Affairs (Mercury), a lobbying, public affairs and political strategy consulting firm, began pro bono work for GloBee International Agency for Regional Development (“GloBee”), a Ukrainian NGO, in mid-March 2022. The firm made headlines for agreeing to work pro bono for a Ukrainian client. The firm’s filing with the Fara at the end of the year shows that Mercury’s work consisted of delivering only four emails on behalf of Globee in the first three and a half months of this agreement.
Mercury, like BGR, also worked on behalf of Pentagon contractors in 2022, while working for a pro bono Ukrainian client. In total, Mercury claimed to have charged more than $180,000 for lobbying on behalf of Pentagon contractors in 2022.
Mercury’s work for a Ukrainian client is also notable because, prior to the Ukrainian war, the firm had been working for years on behalf of Russian interests. This work included lobbying on behalf of Russia’s Sovcombank, as well as a Russian energy company founded by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska was recently implicated in a scheme to bribe an FBI agent who was investigating him. Mercury dropped these two Russian clients when the Ukraine war began, but not before earning nearly $3 million from these Russian interests in the five years before the company agreed to work for a pro bono Ukrainian client, according to Fara’s filings.
Mercury did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Navigators Global
On April 29, 2022, Navigators Global, which describes itself as an “affairs management, government relations and strategic communications” company, registered with Fara to represent the Ukrainian parliament’s National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee. According to the company’s Fara file, they contacted dozens of key members of Congress on behalf of the Ukrainian parliament – including eight phone calls, text messages and emails with McCarthy – and contacted the House and Senate Armed Services Committees two dozen times.
While Navigators Global was exerting this gratuitous pressure on congressional policymakers who have arguably the most influence over U.S. military aid to Ukraine, the company was also earning revenue from Pentagon contractors. Specifically, in 2022 Navigators Global earned $830,000 working on behalf of defense contractors, according to lobbying data compiled by OpenSecrets. The companies’ lobbying files also show that their work for these contractors addressed, among other issues, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY23, the defense policy bill that increased spending on the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative by $500 million.
Navigators Global did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Ogilvy
On Aug. 26, 2022, Ogilvy Group, a giant advertising and PR agency, registered with Fara to work with Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy on the ministry’s Advantage Ukraine Initiative. The initiative’s website describes it as the “Ukrainian Government Investment Initiative.” The main investment option listed is Ukraine’s defense industry. Ogilvy is joined in this endeavor by those also registered with Fara Group M and Hill & Knowlton Strategies, as well as marketing firm Hogarth Worldwide, which has not registered with Fara.
While Ogilvy Group was spreading “the message that Ukraine remains open for business,” as its statement of work with the ministry explains, Ogilvy Government Relations was lobbying for Pentagon contractors, which paid the firm nearly half a million dollars in 2022. These two Ogilvy organizations are technically separate entities. They are owned by the same parent company, WPP.
At least one of the contractors for which Ogilvy Government Relations lobbies, Fluor, appears to benefit directly from increased U.S. military support for Ukraine and increased U.S. military presence in Europe in general. In 2020, the US Army’s 7th Training Command awarded Fluor a five-year Logistics Support Services contract, which, a Fluor spokesperson explained, “positions Fluor for future work with the US European Command and the US Africa Command headquarters located in Germany.” Fluor paid Ogilvy Government Relations $200,000 for lobbying activities in 2022, according to OpenSecrets.
Ogilvy did not respond to a request for comment on the record.
As the Ukraine war enters its second year, U.S. defense spending continues to skyrocket. Weapons and defense contractors received nearly half – $400 billion – of the $858 billion defense budget for 2023.
“There is a huge demand for weapons to transfer to Ukraine to replenish dwindling U.S. stockpiles…contractors are seeing billions of dollars in Ukraine-related contracts,” said Julia Gledhill, who researches defense spending at the government watchdog Project On Government Oversight.