We can’t make this stuff up!
Any one know how to get through to the MSM to cover this story after NMPOTUS announced to us all last night that he has “negotiated” to “insure” ALL steel for pipeline projects, etc will only be sourced through USA?
What Next?
How a Russian Steel Oligarch and Putin Ally Is Profiting from the Keystone XL Pipeline
www.desmogblog.com/…
By Steve Horn and Itai Vardi
Believe it or not, there's a key connection to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, in the fight over North America's controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
One of President Donald Trump’s first actions in office was to sign an executive order on January 24 expediting the approval of the Keystone XL. Owned by TransCanada, this tar sands oil pipeline was halted by former President Barack Obama in November 2015.
Trump signed another order on January 24, calling for steel for U.S. pipelines to be made in the U.S. to the “maximum extent possible,” and two days later TransCanada filed a new presidential permit application for Keystone XL with the U.S. Department of State. [emphasis added]
Critics, such as John Kemp of Reuters, pounced on the caveat language in Trump’s steel order and noted that it appears “designed to preserve lots of wiggle-room.” In fact, a DeSmog investigation reveals that much of the steel for Keystone XL has already been manufactured and is sitting in a field in rural North Dakota.
DeSmog has uncovered that 40 percent of the steel created so far was manufactured in Canada by a subsidiary of Evraz, a company 31-percent owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who is a close ally of Putin and a Trump family friend. Evraz has also actively lobbied against provisions which would mandate that Keystone XL's steel be made in the U.S.
Abramovich is described in the 2004 book Abramovich: The Billionaire from Nowhere by British journalists Dominic Midgley and Chris Hutchins as “one of the prime movers behind the establishment of the only political party that was prepared to offer its undiluted support to Putin when he fought his first presidential election in late 1999. When Putin needed a shadowy force to act against his enemies behind the scenes, it was Abramovich whom he could rely on to prove a willing co-conspirator.”
Evraz describes itself as “among the top steel producers in the world based on crude steel production of 14.3 million tonnes in 2015.”
DeSmog's findings comes as Trump is under scrutiny from Congress, U.S. intelligence agencies, and others for his personal and presidential campaign team's ties to Russia. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded in January that Russian state-sponsored actors had hacked into the email databases of both the Democratic National Committee and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign in order to influence the election in favor of Trump.
Continue reading ...www.desmogblog.com/…
* Photo copy and citation: MOSCOW, RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) speaks with the Governor of Chukotka region, billinonaire and owner of the Chelsea Football Club Roman Abramovich during their meeting in Moscow, 27 May 2005. AFP PHOTO / ITAR-TASS / PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE (Photo credit should read VLADIMIR RODIONOV/AFP/Getty Images)