Richard Burt

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Richard Burt, 2012
Richard Burt (left) with Franz Josef Strauss , 1987

Richard R. Burt (born February 3, 1947 in Sewell , Chile ) is an American diplomat and lobbyist . He was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 1985 to 1989 .

Life

Richard Burt first studied at Cornell University in Ithaca , where he received his bachelor's degree in 1969 . In 1972 he received his Masters from Tufts University ; in the same year he received a research fellowship at Naval War College . Subsequently, he worked at the London International Institute for Strategic Studies until 1977 , where he was promoted to deputy director before switching to journalism and being hired as a correspondent for security policy topics by the New York Times .

After Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 presidential election , Republican Burt entered government service. From 1981 to 1982 he was Undersecretary of State for Politico-Military Issues ( Director of the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs ); thereafter he served from 1983 to 1985 as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs . He was then appointed as the successor to Arthur F. Burns as ambassador in Bonn , which he remained from September 16, 1985 to February 17, 1989; he was followed by Vernon A. Walters .

After his return to the United States, Burt was appointed chief negotiator in the START negotiations with the Soviet Union by the new President George Bush ; he held this position until 1991. After the START contract was signed, Burt switched to the private sector. Among other things, he became a partner of the management consultancy McKinsey & Company and a board member of the agricultural group Archer Daniels Midland . He also advises the Center for Strategic and International Studies and is the US chairman of Global Zero , a non-profit organization for a nuclear-free world.

In 2014, Burt served as a foreign policy advisor for Rand Paul's presidential campaign without pay .

In the first half of 2016, Burt's company received $ 365,000 to lobby for New European Pipeline AG, a subsidiary of Gazprom . From February 2016 he lobbied for Nord Stream II, an extension of the Nord Stream pipeline through which Russian gas would reach Western Europe directly, i.e. bypassing Belarus and Ukraine . During the same period, Burt became an advisor for Donald Trump's presidential campaign . Burt is said to have recommended Trump a more isolationist foreign policy course and contributed to Trump's first major foreign policy speech at the pro-Russian think tank Center for the National Interest . In this speech on April 26, 2016, Trump called for closer cooperation with Russia. During the campaign, Burt also wrote white papers for Trump's adviser Jeff Sessions on foreign policy and national security. Burt's simultaneous work as a campaign advisor for Trump and as a lobbyist for Russia first came into focus in October 2016.

In the course of the investigation of possible involvement of Trump's team with Russian authorities in their interference in the US presidential election campaign in 2016 , Jeff Sessions, meanwhile Minister of Justice in the Trump cabinet, testified on June 13, 2017 before the secret service committee of the US Senate and declared that he "believed" not having met with Russia lobbyists before the 2016 election . Burt contradicted this a few days later by announcing that he had met Sessions twice during this time.

Web links

Commons : Richard R. Burt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Costa: Rand Paul building national network, courting mainstream support for presidential bid. In: The Washington Post , March 27, 2014 (English); James Kirchick: Is Rand Paul a Secret Hawk? Or Maybe Not a Total Dove? In: The Daily Beast , May 9, 2014 (English).
  2. ↑ a b Ben Schreckinger, Julia Ioffe: Lobbyist advised Trump campaign while promoting Russian pipeline. In: Politico , October 7, 2016 (English).
  3. ↑ James Kirchick: Donald Trump's Russia connections. In: Politico , April 27, 2016 (English).
  4. ↑ Mark Hosenball: Former Reagan aide helped write Trump foreign policy speech. In: Reuters , June 8, 2017 (English).
  5. ↑ Stephanie Kirchgaessner : Lobbyist for Russian interests says he attended dinners hosted by Sessions. In: The Guardian , June 15, 2017 (English).
predecessor Office successor
Arthur F. Burns US Ambassador to Germany
September 16, 1985 to February 17, 1989 		Vernon A. Walters
personal data
SURNAME Burt, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burt, Richard R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Sewell , Chile