Aliyev paid for his visit to Washington

During the recent visit of Ilham Aliyev to Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry and other US leaders did not publicly criticize the facts of suppression of rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan and in particular, the closure of the radio station “Freedom”.

Meanwhile, Baku used lobby groups to make sure that the atmosphere is favorable. Thus, two different sources confirmed to the correspondent of Turan that the Lobbyists made significant efforts for this, particularly, for organizing a meeting between Kerry and Aliyev.

Although Aliyev’s visit to Washington was about the participation in the nuclear security summit, the deal between the Azerbaijani embassy and the leading American consulting company Podesta Group helped the visit.

As previously reported, this lobby group guarantees the access of the Azerbaijani authorities to some of the most influential people in Washington. The cost of these services is $ 50,000 per month.

After Aliyev’s visit to Washington, the Azerbaijani embassy hurried to sign a new contract with Podesta Group for $ 70,000 for so called ”additional services”. According to the State Department, lobbyists should perform additional services during the time between April 6, 2016 and the end of July 2016.

Representatives of Podesta were unwilling to comment.

Podesta Group is headed by Tony and John Podesta, the first is a participant in the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, the second is former adviser to President Barack Obama and head of the election campaign of Hillary Clinton.

Source: meydan.tv