The Washington Post reports that "Kremlin-friendly television stations and newspapers" and Russian economic sanctions played a key role in the toppling of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Though Bakiyev fled the country on April 7, he has refused to resign his post.
Kyrgyzstan provides a key air base to U.S. forces engaged in Afghanistan. Allegations of corruption in supplying the base by officials figured in the toppling of both the previous government and that of Bakiyev, according to the New York Times.
The effort to topple Bakiyev, the Post reported, "...was a sharp departure from Russia's traditional support for ...
Senate committee calls for tighter regulations on property, bank accounts of foreign politicians
The subcommittee's 325-page report found that U.S. bankers, lawyers, real estate agents and escrows overlooked foreign political officials moving millions of dollars into the country. For years, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the 40-year-old eldest son of Equatorial Guinea's president was using U.S. banks to move $110 million. Obiang Mangue, also the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of the oil and timber rich western African country, used U.S. financial institutions, including Wachovia Bank, Citibank, Union Bank of California and Bank of America to move money through five shell companies, attorney-clients and other accounts.
Continue readingIt Was A Very Good Year
Sunlight hasn’t been around nearly as long as that song — it was first recorded in 1961 and we opened... View Article
Continue readingLobbying disclosure upheld
Details available from Legal Times blog here:
In the opening lines of the 48-page opinion, written by Judge Merrick Garland, the court points to a Supreme Court case in 1954 that said the public disclosure of individuals who are trying to influence legislation is "vital" national interest."Because nothing has transpired in the last half century to suggest that the national interest in public disclosure of lobbying information is any less vital than it was when the Supreme Court first considered the issue, we reject that challenge," Garland wrote in today's opinion, which was joined by Judges Douglas Ginsburg ...
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What Am I Reading Today?
Real Times Investigations’ Luke Roziak uses the Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker to expose an Israeli spy with “one of the... View Article
Continue readingWhat am I reading today?
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) reviewed all 50 state formulas for disclosing stimulus contracts and found that New Hampshire... View Article
Continue readingForeign Lobbying Around Bailout?
Recent news stories have shown that the U.S. is increasingly in the business of providing loans and bailout money to... View Article
Continue readingFARA Reports Shine Light on Dubai Dealings
My colleague Anupama Naranswamy writes at the Real Time Investigations blog about the lobbying campaign waged by Dubai businesses in... View Article
Continue readingFARAdb Allows Digital Digging into Details of Lobbying
Imagine if you could get a list of all the meetings with members and staffers of the House and Senate... View Article
Continue readingForeign Agents Lobbying Reform
In today’s edition, The New York Times reports on legislation that’s meant to close a loophole lobbyists use to cloak... View Article
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