Скачать или смотреть Did Plans to Export US Ethane Help Fund Accused Russian Spy Maria Butina?

Much has been made of the ties between the National Rifle Association (NRA) and alleged Russian spy Maria Butina after the Justice Department unsealed a criminal conspiracy complaint against Butina on July 16. The investigation seems to have centered largely on whether Butina sought to use the NRA to funnel funds to the Trump campaign.

But Butina’s own funding could raise troubling new questions about President Donald Trump, centering in part on a multi-billion dollar deal signed in 2017 to export ethane, a plastics feedstock, from America to China.

Here's What We Do Know
While much from the multiple investigations underway (into Butina's alleged spying conspiracy and into Trump's connections to Russia) remains under wraps and many questions are still unanswered, here’s what we do know so far:

Konstantin Nikolaev, a Russian businessman, is believed to have provided funding to Maria Butina as part of her alleged illicit espionage for Russia in Washington D.C.

Nikolaev is one of five public members of the board of directors for a Texas-based company called American Ethane, first incorporated in 2014.

The company has many ties to powerful Russians. The Guardian revealed on July 10 that Putin’s former chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, also kept an undisclosed investment in American Ethane, shielding it from the enhanced scrutiny normally required for dealings by members of Putin's inner circle by using a shell company.

American Ethane found some powerful supporters in the U.S. as well.

Last year in Beijing, the company signed a $26 billion contract to export ethane — with Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump in the room. That deal was signed at the same time as an $83.7 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) promising Chinese investment in West Virginian ethane-based manufacturing was signed.

A video posted on American Ethane’s website shows President Trump applauding as American Ethane CEO John Houghtaling shakes hands with the chairman of China’s Nanshan Group during the U.S.-China trade summit in November 2017.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that the shadowy billionaire referred to in the Butina investigation was Nikolaev, citing a person familiar with Butina’s Senate testimony. The Post also pointed out that Nikolaev’s $1.2 billion net worth matched figures provided by prosecutors and that Nikolaev had acknowledged discussions with Butina (but his spokesman had declined a request for confirmation that Nikolaev had provided the NRA-linked alleged Russian spy with financial support).

That billionaire played a powerful role in Butina’s activities in the U.S. “In a court filing last week, prosecutors said Butina’s emails and chat logs are full of references to a billionaire as the ‘funder’ of her activities,” The Post reported. “They wrote that the billionaire is a ‘known Russian businessman with deep ties to the Russian Presidential Administration.’”

Through her lawyer, Butina has denied being a Russian agent.

Read the full story at: https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/07/30...

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