Lobbyists polish Russia's image
By Roman Kupchinsky
Russia's attempts to promote a positive image of being a reliable energy
supplier as well as a safe and profitable haven for foreign investments have
played a significant role in Russian policy. To achieve this goal the Russian
government and state-owned companies have hired Western public relations firms
to tout the alleged benefits of working in partnership with Russia.
Records of this activity can be found on the Foreign Agents Registration Act
(FARA) website of the US Department of Justice (www.justice.gov/criminal/fara).
The most lucrative contract to date was between the Russian government and
Ketchum Inc (NY) via its parent company Ketchum Ltd in the United Kingdom, to
provide "communications support" for the Russian government during the 2006
Group of Eight summit meeting, held in July that
year, until December 31, 2006. The amount allocated to finance Ketchum's
activities in the US was US$2 million.
Ketchum is an arm of the US PR giant Omnicom. According to the filing document,
Ketchum agreed to develop "briefing points for interviews; press releases, fact
sheets ... and facilitate meetings between representatives of Russia's G8
Presidency and persons who are frequently quoted as experts in stories about
international relations such as authors and academics".
Ketchum landed another two-month contract, worth $845,000, from the Russian
government in January 2007 "for the purpose of promoting energy security".
Ketchum wrote in its FARA statement that it would use its teams to focus on
governments and media in World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries such
as the UK, US, Germany, France, Japan and Canada to help them understand the
goal of energy security, Russia's accession to the World Trade Orginization and
"Russia as a place favorable for foreign investments".
The most lucrative contracts have been awarded by Gazprom, the Russian
state-owned gas company, to Gavin Anderson and Company, which was founded in
New York in 1981. In March 2007, Gazprom began paying Gavin Anderson $100,000
per month to "provide financial media relations" and to "improve understanding
of Gazprom's basic business strategies. Strengthening the trust of investors in
Gazprom". Gazprom apparently felt that negative information about its practices
and opaque dealings were hurting the company and it was willing to pay a high
price to remedy the situation.
GazpromExport, a fully owned subsidiary of Gazprom, also joined these PR
activities in 2006-2007, choosing Ketchum to do its PR - not Gavin Anderson.
The reasons for this are unknown, but it might indicate that the CEO of
GazpromExport, Alexander Medvedev, was more comfortable with Ketchum, a company
which seemingly is favored by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
FARA was notified by Ketchum in August 2007 that GazpromExport would pay
$247,500 per month ($147,500 more per month than its parent company, Gazprom,
was paying Gavin Anderson) for their services. Ketchum's description of these
services was brief: "Ketchum will pursue various activities, including
arranging interviews between representatives of Gazprom and members of the
media ... monitoring media coverage."
Ketchum subsidiary GPlus Europe was hired by the Kremlin in 2007 to improve
media relations. They signed a deal for media handling and government advocacy
that included GPlus's work in Brussels and Paris as well as subcontracts with
consultancies Dimap in Berlin and Reti in Rome. GPlus was also hired by
GazpromExport to promote the concept that Gazprom and GazpromExport are fully
transparent entities. The GPlus team working on the GazpromExport contract
consists of 14 individuals, with four members concentrating on PR within
Germany alone.
The leader of the GazpromExport team at GPlus is allegedly Milina Moncekova,
who accompanies Alexander Medvedev on his trips throughout Europe. Other
members of the team have responsibilities for PR within the rest of Europe. The
head of the team in Germany is Peter Witt, formerly the German deputy permanent
representative to the European Union.
A leading member of the team working the account is Gregor Kreuzhuber who,
according to the GPlus Europe website, "Spent over ten years in the European
Commission as a spokesperson and political adviser to two different
commissioners. Kreuzhuber's last post was with the Commission Vice-President in
charge of Enterprise and Industry Gunter Verheugen."
According to the European Observer, "No one takes a pay cut to join the PR
sector. A mid-ranking EU official such as Kreuzhuber would take home at least
6,000 euros [US$8,600] per month in his previous job and an individual such as
Witt 7,000 euros per month."
Nonetheless, GPlus was not only whitewashing GazpromExport, according to
PRWeek, in 2008. GPlus was criticized by Brussels-based PR firm Aspect
Consulting for promoting Russia's view of the war with Georgia and for being
part of the Russian "propaganda" machine. Aspect Consulting, hired by the
government of Georgia, told PRWeek, "There are agencies that work for Russia
... but I do not know how they can be comfortable about that."
On January 25, at the height of the Ukrainian-Russian gas dispute, GPlus was
suspended from the European Union's lobbying register for failing to disclose
the identity of three clients. Peter Guilford, one of GPlus's founders, said
the firm had informed the commission in December when it first joined the
registry that it had pre-existing confidentiality agreements with three
clients, who did not want their names disclosed. Two of those clients are no
longer represented by GPlus.
"We have been super-transparent," Guilford said, noting that the clients in
question included two trade associations and one corporation. Ketchum's
reputation might be further discredited as new information is revealed in the
media about Gazprom's dealings in the gas trade.
Roman Kupchinsky was born in Vienna, Austria and immigrated to the United
States in 1949. He graduated with a degree in Political Science from Long
Island University; served in the US Army as a rifle platoon leader in Vietnam.
From 1978-1988 was President of Prolog Research Corp, a Ukrainian language
publishing house and research company. From 1990-2002 was Director of the
Ukrainian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. From 2002-2008 was a
senior analyst at RFE/RL. He is the author of numerous articles on Ukrainian
affairs, Russian energy and international politics.
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