Trump lines up Putin’s pal to be America’s top envoy
ConCERnS about Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia were fuelled yesterday when he lined up a friend of Vladimir Putin’s for the key role of US Secretary of State.
Exxonmobil chief executive Rex Tillerson built strong ties with moscow when his £290billion firm exploited huge oil and gas reserves in the Russian Arctic.
But the 64-year-old multi-millionaire has no experience outside the oil industry, having joined Exxonmobil as an engineer straight from university and spent his entire career there.
mr Trump boasted yesterday that the Texan’s chummy relations with the Kremlin would be useful as Secretary of State.
‘He’s more than a business executive – he’s a world-class player,’ mr Trump said.
He called it ‘a great advantage’ that mr Tillerson, who is also chairman of the energy giant, knew ‘many of the players’, and did ‘massive deals in Russia’.
mr Trump added: ‘He’s in charge of an oil company that’s pretty much double the size of its next nearest competitor.’
A father-of-four, committed Christian and ex-president of the Boy Scouts of America, mr Tillerson was dubbed ‘T Rex’ by former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
His nomination is reportedly close to
‘Tillerson would sell out Nato’
being confirmed, although it has drawn sharp criticism in the US. It could even be blocked if just three Republican senators join forces with Democrats in the Senate.
‘I don’t know what mr Tillerson’s relationship with Vladimir Putin was, but I’ll tell you it is a matter of concern to me,’ said Senator John mcCain, a former Republican presidential candidate.
‘You want to give the President of the United States the benefit of the doubt because the people have spoken. But Vladimir Putin is a thug, bully and a murderer, and anybody else who describes him as anything else is lying.’
mr mcCain insisted the Senate would give mr Tillerson a ‘fair hearing’ if he was chosen by the President-elect.
mr Tillerson, who has made several large donations to the Republican Party, is expected to be named as America’s top diplomat next week. Ex-US ambassador to the Un, John Bolton, has been mooted as his deputy.
However, former senior mcCain aide mark Salter predicted mr Tillerson would struggle to pass the confirmation process.
He tweeted: ‘Tillerson would sell out nato for... his pal, Vlad.
‘Should be a rough confirmation hearing, and a no vote on the Senate floor.’ Before mr Tillerson took over the world’s biggest publicly-owned oil firm ten years ago, he was head of its Russian operation, which inevitably involved establishing friendly relations with the Kremlin.
He hammered out multi-billiondollar deals with Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft, and is friends with Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s executive chairman.
mr Sechin was formerly mr Putin’s deputy prime minister, and has been described as Russia’s second most powerful man.
mr Tillerson negotiated a 2011 energy partnership with mr Putin to exploit oil in the Arctic that the Russian president said would be worth as much as £397billion.
The following year, mr Putin awarded the American oil baron the Russian order of Friendship – the highest honour Russia can bestow on foreigners. But the energy deal was put on hold when the US and European allies imposed sanctions against Russia for annexing Crimea.
Exxonmobil is said to have vowed to resume the agreement once sanctions are lifted – and as Secretary of State, mr Tillerson would be deeply involved in deciding whether to end the trade penalties.
mr Tillerson has already spoken out against sanctions on Russia, claiming they damage the country’s ordinary people.
He could also face conflict-ofinterest issues over his pension. Due to retire from Exxonmobil next year, the value of his pension of tens of millions of dollars is tied to the fortunes of the oil firm.
However, supporters claim he is an experienced negotiator – a vital skill for a Secretary of State, and as head of a global firm, he is used to dealing with world leaders.
Under his ten-year leadership, oil prices broke records and Exxon’s profit soared, making it the world’s most valuable public company.
But his record at the helm has been chequered as the firm strug- gled to cope with falling oil prices. Last year, he took an 18 per cent pay cut worth nearly £22million to placate shareholders who were angered when the company’s share price barely rose in five years.
Unlike mr Trump, he accepts that climate change is a real threat and will have ‘catastrophic’ consequences if it is not tackled.
In 2014, he was accused of nimbyism after joining neighbours near Dallas to oppose the construction of a large water tower.
Ironically, one of the main criticisms of the tower was that it would be used for fracking, the controversial oil-extraction process championed by Exxonmobil.