During these final weeks of the presidential campaign Mitt Romney seems to be doubling down on Russia as his pick for America\u2019s \u201cnumber one geopolitical foe.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a curious game plan from the investor-in-chief whose company, Bain & Co., had no scruples about profiting handsomely as a player in the Russian market in the early nineties.\u00a0 It was, after all, a division of Bain that partnered with international conglomerate British American Tobacco in the highly lucrative expansion of their tobacco business into Russia.\u00a0 Remember, this was happening in the era when tobacco companies\u2019 profits were drying up in the U.S., and the deadly connection between smoking and cancer was no longer in dispute.<\/p>\n

In America we\u2019re used to this kind of cynical investing by private individuals and corporations who ignore the ethical and moral failings of their profit-making ventures. But shouldn\u2019t we expect greater ethical clarity and commitment from the individual we elect as president and commander-in-chief?\u00a0 The answer is most certainly yes.<\/p>\n

Recently we\u2019ve learned from Mr. Romney\u2019s 2012 tax returns that his interest in the Russian market has not diminished.\u00a0 In 2011 he purchased and then sold shares (in advance of the election season) in Gazprom.\u00a0 For those of you like me who are not well versed in the details of Russia\u2019s economy, Gazprom is a true behemoth among behemoths.\u00a0 The highly profitable, semi-private company has a near-monopoly on selling natural gas throughout Europe.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the interesting part.\u00a0 Guess who owns 50 percent\u00a0of Gazprom? Yes, Virginia, that would be the investor-in-chief\u2019s pick for \u201cAmerica\u2019s number one foe\u201d\u2014the government of Russia.<\/p>\n

According to Business Week, \u201cthe Russian state is heavily dependent on taxes and profits\u201d from Gazprom.\u00a0 It\u2019s been estimated that the taxes paid by Gazprom alone represent a whopping 20% of the Russian government\u2019s overall budget. That percentage of taxes buys a lot of influence.\u00a0 As a New York Times piece in 2009 pointed out, \u201cthe line between Gazprom and the Russian state\u2019s foreign policy is sometimes so thin as to be almost nonexistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/news\/business\/companies\/gazprom\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n

In a more recent article in Business Insider Military & Defense, Walter Hickey reports that increased revenue from the spike in gas and oil prices has encouraged President Putin to promise an increase of $770 billion in Russia\u2019s military budget between 2014 and 2020.\u00a0 That\u2019s Russia, Romney\u2019s designated number one, capitalizing on the profitability of Gazprom and increasing the export of \u201csophisticated arms packages.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to believe Mr. Romney is losing sleep since his number-one-foe comment and the Gazprom connection have come to light.\u00a0 But I\u2019m sure he\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we should be the ones losing sleep. Ask yourself, since when is it acceptable for the commander-in-chief of the United States to have once invested in a company owned and largely operated by the government he himself calls our geopolitical foe?\u00a0 What should be deeply troubling to voters is that Romney seems to feel he\u2019s entitled to his investments and, at the same time, entitled to our trust that his business interests will not undermine his ability to represent the interests of the American people.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s review this conundrum again.<\/p>\n

Romney invests in Gazprom.\u00a0 Gazprom is 50% owned by the Russian government. Romney labels Russia our \u201cnumber one geopolitical foe.\u201d Gazprom buys out opposition and dissenting television stations, newspapers, and radio stations, enabling the suppression of opposition opinions.\u00a0 Gazprom\u2019s tax payments to the Russian government make up 20% of all taxes. The Russian government uses some of that tax money to support the manufacture and sale of weapons systems to countries and groups that may pose a risk to the national security of the United States.<\/p>\n

And Russia is not the only country investor-and-candidate Romney has a problem with. In another of his foreign-policy statements, Romney has called for a \u201ccrackdown\u201d on China.\u00a0 Surprise, surprise. Here he goes again. As reported by President Obama\u2019s Truth Team, (http:\/\/www.barackobama.com\/truth-team\/entry\/mitt-romneys-tax-returns-reveal-controversial-foreign-investments\/<\/a>) Romney\u2019s 2011 tax returns reveal that Romney bought and sold investments in China\u2019s state-owned oil company.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the takeaway?\u00a0 Does Mr. Romney think that we (you know, \u201cyou people\u201d) are too dumb to notice the blatant hypocrisy? Maybe he thinks he can convince us that he can pivot from only-the-money-matters investor-in-chief to objective statesman once he\u2019s sitting at the presidential desk.\u00a0 Mitt must be so ethically challenged that he believes there\u2019s nothing wrong with the intellectual disconnect between his blustering statements on Russia and China on the one hand and the implications of his investments to foreign policy on the other.<\/p>\n

What message should we send candidate Romney?\u00a0 First, that we\u2019re going to work overtime to make sure he never gets even a glimpse of the oval office.\u00a0 And second, that he hears us loud and clear: \u201cWe\u2019re not going to let you have your cake and eat it too, Mr. Romney. Not with our vote.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During these final weeks of the presidential campaign Mitt Romney seems to be doubling down on Russia as his pick for America\u2019s \u201cnumber one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":19140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1176,162,1383,384],"tags":[1070,1663],"yoast_head":"\n