The Azerbaijani government is taking measures to prevent the adoption by the US Congress of the bill “Act on Democracy in Azerbaijan – 2015”. This was reported by the Azerbaijani news agency “Turan”.
According to the news agency, an agreement has been concluded with the American lobbying organization “Podesta Group” for this purpose, which should help to prevent the adoption of this bill, which provides for the imposition of sanctions against Azerbaijani officials for violations of human rights and democracy.
It is reported that the authorities will pay “Podesta Group” at least $ 50,000 a month for the efforts to improve the image of the Azerbaijani government and work to block the bill in the Congress. According to the information of the US Department of Justice, the corresponding agreement was signed on February 1 by Azerbaijani Ambassador to the USA Elin Suleymanov and “Podesta Group” “for rendering public relations services.”
It is noted that, in particular, the duties of “Podesta” in the agreement are stated as follows: “to investigate and analyze issues of concern; provide legal advice on American politics, the activities of Congress, the executive branch and American policy in general; Establish contacts with members of Congress and their representatives, representatives of the executive branch and NGOs “.
It should be recalled that after many years of systematic efforts by the Azerbaijani government to suppress the voices of independent journalists, opposition politicians and civil society groups, the chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Congressman Chris Smith, on December 16, 2015, promulgated the draft “Democracy Act in Azerbaijan 2015”, according to which from now on to high-ranking members of Azerbaijani government will not be granted an American visa, financial sanctions will be imposed, which will be lifted when the government of Azerbaijan shows significant progress in releasing political prisoners, stopping the persecution of civil society and holding free and fair elections.
It was also noted that according to the US magazine “Foreign Policy”, registration documents of the government of Azerbaijan and its American lobbyists show that the country has spent at least $ 4 million on lobbying for only 2014. It was noted that in February 2015 the Azerbaijani embassy increased the monthly fee of its main lobbyist, “Podesta Group”, from $ 50,000 to $ 75,000. The registration documents of “Podesta Group” disclosed hundreds of contacts with the offices of the Congress, executive agencies, the media and research centers.
Subsequently, Azerbaijan managed to “buy influence” in Washington, and many congressmen began spreading statements in favor of Azerbaijan. At the same time, none of these statements were mentioned about the documented violations of the regime of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in relation to his own citizens.
Source: panorama.am