Over the past few days, a series of pieces About the Late Sen. Bob Dole Focuses on a handful of subjects. pieces of praise Dole’s Valor, Their Politics, Their Patriotism, There are also passages connecting Dole’s death. the end of an era of bipartisanship – more than a few pundits believe Kansas Legislator It was one of the last figures remaining from the era when the Congress actually functioned.
It is certainly true that Dole, the 1996 Republican nominee for president and World War II hero, was an eccentric figure in Washington.
It is certainly true that Dole, the Republican nominee for the 1996 presidency and a World War II hero, was a prodigious man in Washington.
But there is another element to Dole’s legacy as well. While Dole may have epitomized bipartisan camaraderie, he paved the way for prominent Washington politicians to lobby for some of the shady, most fanatical foreign figures in Washington. In many ways, Dole helped open the floodgates. shoddy lobbying blast Which has drenched Washington over the past few decades.
It’s a legacy that has received little attention over the years, even in the face of foreign lobbying on the part of crooked, corrupt customers. Scandal Later Scandal During the Trump era. But Dole, supposed to be one”lion of the senate, “had a full second career as an American politician who was willing to sell his name to any foreign lobbying client—regardless of his Democratic credentials.
Just look at some of the oligarchs, regimes and groups Dole helped whitewash after retiring from the Senate in 1996. Perhaps no figure better explains Dole’s transformation into a reputation launderer for kleptocratic clients than Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
In the mid-2000s, Deripaska – one of the most notorious pro-Kremlin oligarchs to emerge in Moscow – attempted to obtain a US visa to travel to the US. Then And NowAllegations of bribery and violence saturated Deripaska’s rise to power. as the Treasury Department wrote in 2018“There are allegations that Deripaska bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman, and had ties to a Russian organized crime group.” (Deripaska has consistently denied such allegations and sued the Treasury in 2019 In an effort, he said, to clear his name and free himself from US sanctions.) Washington barred Deripaska from granting visas.
Then Dole stepped in. With his firm, Alston and Bird, taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees From the Russian elite, Dole led a lobbying campaign, as The Wall Street Journal reported at the time, “Convince US officials that their client is not a criminal and that his business conduct is transparent.” The campaign was ultimately successful, introducing Deripaska to America and giving her access to American policymakers and businessmen.
A few years later, however, it became clear to many that Deripaska was no clean, independent businessman, as Dole had taken the money to claim. Instead, as CNN recently reported, Deripaska remained an “ally” of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the oligarch Presence In Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election for allegedly working with Paul Manafort. Mueller report elaborates that Manafort funneled information about the Trump campaign, including internal polling data Alleged Russian intelligence agent Konstantin Klimnik, with the hope that Kilimnik will inform Deripaska (among others).
NS The Treasury Department claimed In 2018 that Deripaska remains a key player in Russia’s “malicious activity” abroad and has said “it does not dissociate itself from the Russian state.” Deripaska has always denied charges against him. However, the same year the US imposed sanctions on Deripaska. In October, the FBI raid started On US properties linked to Deripaska.
But it was not just the Russian oligarchs. With foreign customers from places like kosovo And Armenia, Dole and his firm had no problem working with autocratic or dictatorial regimes around the world. A federal lobbying filing indicates that Dole acted on behalf of dictatorial government of the united arab emirates, which is linked to the charges of underhand lobbying campaign In recent years. The filing also indicates that Dole acted whitewashing the prestige of autocratic rule In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joining the country’s budding dictator With policymakers in Washington.
With foreign clients from places such as Kosovo and Armenia, Dole and his firm had no problem dealing with autocratic or dictatorial regimes around the world.
In the late 2000s, Dole also joined the board of a bank in Kyrgyzstan called AsiaUniversalBank. According to Very large Reporting from both journalists and pro-transparency Groups like Global Witness, the bank acted as an effective money laundromat for the ruling Bakiyev family, which smothered pro-democracy movements until they were ousted in a bloody revolution in 2010. (It was considered so suspicious that even the Russian Central Bank recommended against doing the work. AUB.) As Global Witness wrote, the bank “maintained important indicators that money suggest laundering: hundreds of millions of dollars were running through their accounts while they were not involved in any actual business activity.”
But then Dole stepped in, joining the bank’s board in 2007 and lending its reputation to the brand. (It is not clear how much Dole earned from the arrangement.) A Kyrgyz official told me About Dole joining the bank a few years ago, “I remember being hated by how cheap America’s politicians were” [were] on sale.”
To be sure, Dole is hardly the only prominent Western politician to trade his name for lucrative lobbying contracts. European countries have deposed many former leaders and immediately joined with dictators and authoritarians German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder working in russia British Prime Minister Tony Blair Advising the dictator in Kazakhstan. But Dole definitely stands out.
But then again, perhaps this should come as no surprise. After all, Dole was the only former GOP candidate. support donald trump (and who constant praise former President). Likewise, it’s worth remembering who oversaw Dole’s formal nomination in 1996, a name that would forever be synonymous with shady foreign connections: Paul Manafort,