A Republican party donor and oil executive with business interests in Georgia through the Frontera oil firm has been lobbying against the passage of the MEGOBARI Act, a sanctions bill, in the US Congress, Reuters has reported.
In a letter seen by Reuters, Steve Nicandros, the CEO of Frontera Industries warned that the bill could push Georgia closer to Russia, thereby hurting his business interests, as well as those of other Americans. Frontera has a long and troubled history in Georgia.
‘For companies like ours that employ people and invest in Georgia, stable bilateral relations are critical’, the letter read.
The bill would increase sanctions on Georgia if the country did not reverse its democratic backsliding, but would also provide incentives, including defence aid and possible visa liberalisation, if democratic reforms were undertaken. It was passed by the House of Representatives in May, but has since stalled in the Senate.
In September, unnamed sources told The Hill that the bill was being singlehandedly blocked by Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, who expressed a similar sentiment to Nicandros — highlighting concern for the future of American investments in Georgia.
While a member of Congress, Mullin penned an op-ed for The Hill in 2020 under the headline ‘The United States must stand with Georgia’s fight for freedom’.
In 2020 the article, Mullin described Georgian Dream’s founder Bidzina Ivanishvili as a ‘a Russian-schooled oligarch who made billions in the corrupt feeding frenzy on abandoned Russian industries after the collapse of the Soviet Union’.
Mullin also criticised the Georgian government for creating difficulties with two US companies trying to do business in Georgia — the Conti Group and Frontera Resources — a company that was founded by Nicandros.
Frontera has had a long and troubled history with the Georgian government, involving lawsuits, allegations of maltreatment of its Georgian workers, and huge sums spent on lobbying members of Congress.
Mullin told The Hill in September that his turnaround on Georgia and opposition to the MEGOBARI ACT had nothing to do with his connections to Frontera, claiming it had been almost two years since he had contact with the company. Publicly available information indicates that Nicandros has donated roughly $6,000 to Mullin’s campaign since 2020, a relatively modest sum.
While OC Media has not viewed the letter from Nicandros in full, Reuters does not mention Frontera, only citing the energy company TXN Energy, which is based in Texas but claims to have been doing business in Georgia since 1997.
TXN Energy shares an identical mailing address in Texas as Frontera. Nicandros is the CEO of TXN Energy, the letter noted, but that information is not available on TXN Energy’s threadbare website, nor are any other details about the company.
Relations between the Georgian Government and Frontera appeared to have improved since Frontera lost an arbitration case to the government in May 2020.
Georgian Ambassador to the US Tamar Taliashvili told Reuters that Tbilisi had no lobbying connections in the US. She also reiterated a familiar refrain from members of the ruling Georgian Dream party — that relations with the US had plummeted under former President Joe Biden, but that Tbilisi hoped for a reset under President Donald Trump.
‘Concerning Mr Steven Nicandros — he is an American businessman, widely recognised as one of the earliest trailblazers to introduce well-established US enterprise to the South Caucasian region in the wake of Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union’, Taliashvili said.
Given Mullin’s ongoing blocking of the bill in the Senate, its adoption remains uncertain. Supporters of the bill have expressed concern, including Representative Joe Wilson, likely the most outspoken opponent of Georgian Dream in Congress.
The letter itself was provided to Reuters confidentially by a ‘senior Republican aide’, who said that Nicandros’ lobbying was harming the chances of the bill’s passage.
Wilson also told Reuters that he would look into the matter.
OC Media
