Simple translation: Zlochevsky was an ally, officeholder (minister of ecology
and natural resources) and inner-circle thief in the ousted government of Viktor
Yanukovych. He therefore needed to powder the pig fast and thoroughly in order
to hold onto his ill-gotten billions.
So he hired the best Washington influence peddlers that money could buy under
the circumstances. First up was Hunter Biden, because his old man was running
point on what amounted to the puppet government Washington had installed in
Kiev, and Devon Archer, because he was a former bundler for former Senator (and
then Secretary of State) John Kerry.
But so as to leave no stone unturned, Zlochevsky also had Burisma hire another
Washington influence peddler just one month after Biden the Younger joined the
board in April 2014. Again, according to the WSJ, the additional lobbyist
firepower came from one,
David Leiter of Washington lobbying firm M.L. Strategies….. Mr.
Leiter was John Kerry’s chief of staff when Mr. Kerry was a U.S. senator
from Massachusetts….According to disclosure records, Mr. Leiter, who also
had worked for the Energy Department, lobbied on behalf of Burisma on “promoting
transparency and good corporate governances” at both chambers of Congress,
the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Energy Department, and US
AID.
Needless to say, only in Imperial Washington would all the above named arms
of the US government care a whit about "transparency and good governance"
at a two-bit gas producer in Ukraine. During 2018, for example, the company
produced the trivial sum of 1.3 BCF of natural gas and booked revenues of just
$400 million – a rounding error in just about any energy market that matters.
But as it happened, Washington was calling the shots in Kiev, and Burisma needed
its government licenses and gas concessions. So the lobbying happened on the
banks of the Potomac where the real power was actually exercised.
-- David Stockman, "The Ukrainian Influence Peddling Rings – A Microcosm of How Imperial Washington Rolls" (ANTIWAR.COM).