![Azerbaijan pays ‘extra fee’to Podesta Group following Aliyev’s Washington trip](https://turan.az/resized/media/2016/main/041400152903-750-500-resize.webp)
Azerbaijan pays ‘extra fee’to Podesta Group following Aliyev’s Washington trip
When IlhamAliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, visited Washington later last month, it was an opportunity for Secretary of State John Kerry, as well as others in the US foreign policy establishment, to publicly voice their concerns overcrackdown against journalists, especially the attacks on US-funded media group, RFE/RL in Baku. They chose not to do so. Well, at least publicly.
Aliyevgovernment, in its turn, seems intent on ensuring American support in its conflict with the independent voices through investing in lobbying activity;something that they have found reasonable to believe is paying off.
The meeting with Kerry, which reportedly had been requested by the Azeris, had taken “considerable lobbying to engineer,” TURAN’s Washington correspondent was informed by two different sources knowledgeable about the topic.
Yet itremains unclear how the Azeri officials with their poor human rights international recordscould convince top diplomats of the free worldto remain silent about the brutal anti-US campaign that they launched at home.
Although Aliyev’s Washington trip was related to his participation in the Nuclear Security Summit, it came in the wake of a deal signed between Azerbaijani Embassy and a leading US consultancy Podesta Groupearly this year.
As TURAN reported earlier, Podesta, which guarantees Azerbaijani government’s access to some of the most powerful people in Washington, have been receiving approximately $50,000 per month from the Azerbaijani Embassy, for its service.
Following Aliyev’s Washington trip, the Azeri Embassy rushed to sign anothercontract with the Podesta Group offering extra $70,000 for “additional services,” Justice Departmentrecords show.
“The Provider shall perform the Additional Services during the period commencing on April 6, 2016 and continuing through July 5,2016,” reads the amendment.
Podesta officials had no immediate comment when contacted about this report.
The CEO of the Podesta Group is Tony Podesta, who is currently a bundler for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, and John Podesta,the former counselor to President Barack Obama is the chairman of Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
A.Raufoglu
Washington, DC
Politics
-
Armenia is not against the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, but does not consider it appropriate to discuss this issue now. "In the context of peace, we consider it possible to make a decision on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. When peace is an established fact, the existence of such a format may raise questions," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference today. "The whole question is about the timing, we need to understand how effectively and correctly to turn such topics into a subject of discussion right now," the Armenian Prime Minister added.
-
He expressed his willingness to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the border between the two countries. "A meeting with Ilham Aliyev could take place at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I am open to such a format," Pashinyan said at a press conference today. According to Pashinyan, Armenia recently presented another proposal for a peace treaty to Azerbaijan.
-
On August 31, Azerbaijan observes a "day of silence" before the Sunday’s early parliamentary elections for the unicameral Milli Majlis. All electoral campaigning is prohibited 24 hours before the voting. The early elections were initiated by the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party. This decision was motivated by the overlap of the scheduled elections in November with the global UN forum - the COP20 climate conference taking place in Baku.
-
On August 30, at approximately 22:55, the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant in Metsamor was disconnected from the country's power grid, as reported by the Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure. The shutdown was caused by a lightning strike, which triggered the plant's safety systems to switch the station to a safe shutdown mode. Currently, the plant's staff is working on restarting the facility.
Leave a review