While the media and the political class entertain themselves with accusations that the Trump campaign “colluded” with Russia to steal the 2016 election, they are ignoring a Real Life example of Russian collusion. The Daily Signal, the media arm of the Heritage Foundation, notes that environmental groups are colluding with Russia to impose bans against Hydraulic Fracking in Europe and the United States. The goal is to benefit the Russian Oil And Gas company, Gazprom, which has seen its profits decline with the flooding of world markets with fossil fuels thanks to fracking.
How disinformation works
Russia has carried out disinformation programs for decades, dating back to the Soviet era. The way disinformation works is that an intelligence organization such as the KGB plants stories in the media through sympathetic journalists that support its countries national interests. They also covertly support organizations, either through front groups or directly, whose activities tend to benefit them.
In the 1980s, the Soviet KGB supported the so-called nuclear freeze movement, which held massive protests in both Europe and the United States. These protests were in support of a treaty that would have frozen the number of nuclear weapons in such a way as would have preserved a Soviet advantage.
Fortunately, governments in the free world resisted this campaign. Eventually, arms control agreements were made that reduced the numbers of nuclear weapons and established parity between the two superpowers.
How Russia intends to stop fracking
Fast forward 30 years, and it looks like the Russians are at it again, this time with a more capitalistic motive.
Using a Bermuda shell company called Klein Ltd, the Russians are funneling money through an American 501 C(3) nonprofit called the Sea Change Foundation. The foundation supplies money to environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, in exchange the environmentalists are spreading disinformation about fracking. These groups are pushing the ideas that fracking contaminates ground water and causes massive earthquakes.
The goal is to suppress hydraulic fracking as much as possible, drying up supplies of oil and natural gas and raising the price of fossil fuels to the direct benefit of Gazprom. The Russians benefit by reestablishing dominance in oil and natural gas supplies in Europe. The environmentalists benefit by suppressing fossil fuel production that they see as a barrier to renewable energy.
Fortunately, like the nuclear freeze movement of decades ago, the Russian disinformation program in regards to fracking is failing. The economic benefits of hydraulic fracking have proven to be too great to be overwhelmed by environmentalist fearmongering. However, since “collusion” with Russia seems to be approaching “treason” where the Trump administration is concerned, perhaps some investigation is warranted to uncover what the environmental groups knew about the source of some of their funding and when did they knew it.
