The
headline in Pravda trumpeted President Vladimir V. Putin’s latest coup,
its nationalistic fervor recalling an era when the newspaper served as
the official mouthpiece of the Kremlin: “Russian Nuclear Energy Conquers
the World.”
The
article, in January 2013, detailed how the Russian atomic energy
agency, Rosatom, had taken over a Canadian company with uranium-mining
stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West. The deal made
Rosatom one of the world’s largest uranium producers and brought Mr.
Putin closer to his goal of controlling much of the global uranium
supply chain.
But
the untold story behind that story is one that involves not just the
Russian president, but also a former American president and a woman who
would like to be the next one.
At
the heart of the tale are several men, leaders of the Canadian mining
industry, who have been major donors to the charitable endeavors of
former President Bill Clinton
and his family. Members of that group built, financed and eventually
sold off to the Russians a company that would become known as Uranium
One.
Beyond
mines in Kazakhstan that are among the most lucrative in the world, the
sale gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production
capacity in the United States. Since uranium is considered a strategic
asset, with implications for national security, the deal had to be
approved by a committee composed of representatives from a number of
United States government agencies. Among the agencies that eventually
signed off was the State Department, then headed by Mr. Clinton’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
As
the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate
transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash
made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his
family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those
contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an
agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly
identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made
donations as well.
And
shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a
majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a
Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin
that was promoting Uranium One stock.
At
the time, both Rosatom and the United States government made promises
intended to ease concerns about ceding control of the company’s assets
to the Russians. Those promises have been repeatedly broken, records
show.
The
New York Times’s examination of the Uranium One deal is based on dozens
of interviews, as well as a review of public records and securities
filings in Canada, Russia
and the United States. Some of the connections between Uranium One and
the Clinton Foundation were unearthed by Peter Schweizer, a former
fellow at the right-leaning Hoover Institution and author of the forthcoming book “Clinton Cash.”
Mr. Schweizer provided a preview of material in the book to The Times,
which scrutinized his information and built upon it with its own
reporting.
Whether
the donations played any role in the approval of the uranium deal is
unknown. But the episode underscores the special ethical challenges
presented by the Clinton Foundation, headed by a former president who
relied heavily on foreign cash to accumulate $250 million in assets even
as his wife helped steer American foreign policy as secretary of state,
presiding over decisions with the potential to benefit the foundation’s
donors.
In
a statement, Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential
campaign, said no one “has ever produced a shred of evidence supporting
the theory that Hillary Clinton ever took action as secretary of state
to support the interests of donors to the Clinton Foundation.” He
emphasized that multiple United States agencies, as well as the Canadian
government, had signed off on the deal and that, in general, such
matters were handled at a level below the secretary. “To suggest the
State Department, under then-Secretary Clinton, exerted undue influence
in the U.S. government’s review of the sale of Uranium One is utterly
baseless,” he added.
American
political campaigns are barred from accepting foreign donations. But
foreigners may give to foundations in the United States. In the days
since Mrs. Clinton announced her candidacy
for president, the Clinton Foundation has announced changes meant to
quell longstanding concerns about potential conflicts of interest in
such donations; it has limited donations from foreign governments, with
many, like Russia’s, barred from giving to all but its health care
initiatives. That policy stops short of Mrs. Clinton’s agreement with
the Obama administration, which prohibited all foreign government
donations while she served as the nation’s top diplomat.
Either
way, the Uranium One deal highlights the limits of such prohibitions.
The foundation will continue to accept contributions from foreign
individuals and businesses whose interests, like Uranium One’s, may
overlap with those of foreign governments, some of which may be at odds
with the United States.
When
the Uranium One deal was approved, the geopolitical backdrop was far
different from today’s. The Obama administration was seeking to “reset”
strained relations with Russia. The deal was strategically important to
Mr. Putin, who shortly after the Americans gave their blessing sat down
for a staged interview with Rosatom’s chief executive, Sergei Kiriyenko.
“Few could have imagined in the past that we would own 20 percent of
U.S. reserves,” Mr. Kiriyenko told Mr. Putin.
Now,
after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in Ukraine, the
Moscow-Washington relationship is devolving toward Cold War levels, a
point several experts made in evaluating a deal so beneficial to Mr.
Putin, a man known to use energy resources to project power around the
world.
“Should
we be concerned? Absolutely,” said Michael McFaul, who served under
Mrs. Clinton as the American ambassador to Russia but said he had been
unaware of the Uranium One deal until asked about it. “Do we want Putin
to have a monopoly on this? Of course we don’t. We don’t want to be
dependent on Putin for anything in this climate.”
A Seat at the Table
The
path to a Russian acquisition of American uranium deposits began in
2005 in Kazakhstan, where the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra
orchestrated his first big uranium deal, with Mr. Clinton at his side.
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