The GOP’s Favorite Russian Professor Spent Decades Building Conservative Ties To Moscow
Part 4 of a 10 part series: the Grand Old Putin Party
Dr. Edward Lozansky is a key figure in the Trump-Russia scandal, despite his name being a mystery to you.
Meet Eduard Dmitrievich Lozansky, a US citizen and potentially an unregistered foreign agent for the Russian Federation.
He is prolific Putin propagandist.
A citizen of America.
And he is the key man who introduced the Republican Party’s conservative movement to Russia.
This report is not about his pro-Putin political beliefs, but rather it documents his high-profile career in Washington, D.C. that focused upon courting Republican politicians and networking with high ranking members of the Republican conservative movement, which began in 1977 almost immediately after he emigrated from Moscow to Rome to Rochester, N.Y.
Edward Lozansky is so deeply ingratiated into the Republican Party, that his World Russia Forum has regularly been held in the Senate’s Hart Office Building.
In the early 2000s, he facilitated direct lobbying from the Russian government of America’s Congress, while asserting strangely that he’s not a lobbyist, on his lobbying.ru website profile.
According to his early 2004 biography, Dr. Lozansky is a native of Kiev, Ukraine. Interestingly, Lozansky deleted his Ukrainian-roots from his own official biography shortly after the Orange Revolution later that year, according to a review of saved pages over time from Archive.org.
In 2006, the Boston Globe characterized his Russia House as a consultancy business in his biography in an op-editorial he wrote about a meeting between President Bush and President Putin.
In March 1991, an American firm registering as a foreign agent for Russia named interacting with Russia House their sole duty, because they say it was the official trade ministry of the former Soviet government.
Just six months later, many of America’s top conservative activists got escorted by Lozansky straight to the top of the Russian political system, only months after an August 1991 coup deposed the former Soviet government.
Today, Lozansky’s fake University shares office space with Putin’s propaganda team in Eastern Ukraine.
He’s prolific in turning out pro-Putin propaganda and advocating for the normalization of Russian relations with the United States, without concern for human rights, corruption or the illegal annexation of half of the sovereign state of his birth.
And this is about the unusual set of factually documented circumstances which lead to a pair of shocking conclusions:
- Dr. Lozansky’s operated the foundational groups of Russian lobbying in the United States, became officially supported by US military think tanks and held decades worth of events in the Senate’s own office buildings, becoming personal friends with many of the founders of top Republican think tanks and organizations.
- Dr. Lozansky is most likely one Vladimir Putin’s Chief Advisors in the Russian Federation’s CyberWar against the United States. At the very least, his ideas — including books published by the Russian Foreign Ministry — form the basis for the “special war” we saw deployed against the United States’ 2016 election.
He had rather unusual access to the highest levels of the Soviet Union after having departed as a “dissident,” when emigres typically faced retribution for betraying the State.
“That is striking,” remarked Russian studies expert Christopher Stroop, who holds a Stanford Ph.D. in Russian History.
He’s a visiting instructor at the Honors College at the University of South Florida, a senior research associate with the Postsecular Conflicts Project based at University of Innsbruck, Austria. He said:
“It would certainly indicate that the Soviets were letting Lozansky out for a reason. That’s a good reason to examine his background as a possible agent of influence.”
“An exit visa for someone with Lozansky’s educational background would be highly unusual.”
In fact, allowing a highly educated physicist who trained at the top nuclear to depart the Soviet Union at all is highly unusual, but his anti-communist activities kept him in the highest circles of power in Washington D.C.’s conservative movement for decades.
Ed Lozansky also currently sits on the board of the Eurasia Center and runs the World Russia Forum.
Lozansky also associated himself with the dubious American non-profit corporation “American Institute of the Ukraine” who unceremoniously yanked its website last year, and he’s a member of the “American Council for Kosovo.”
He also founded “Russia House” in DC, a consulting group whose mission is to “bring decision makers together” where he has hosted annual World Russia Forums every year since 1981.
Dr. Lozansky told Reason.com (then Reason magazine) in 1981 that he had a “flair for public relations work.”
Lozansky has used that prowess to deliver an endless stream of pro-Putin propaganda, while hiding behind a multiplicity of facades, and publishing on The Nation, Sputnik, Izvestia, Echo.ru, the Washington Times and as a frequent commenter on Pravda, increasingly on Russian television and through numerous other outlets including his little read Kontinent website.
Lozansky’s Improbable, But Factual Story Of Departing The Soviet Union
The New York Times reported that Dr. Lozansky was part of the prestigious Kurchatov Institute, where most of the Soviet nuclear weapons were designed.
He fled the Soviet Union for the USA in the late 1970’s, purportedly for getting caught criticizing the Communist regime, purportedly for speaking about Nobel Prize-winning physicist Andrei Sakharov’s ideas.
Physicist Ed Lozansky parlayed his conspicuously fantastic personal story about fleeing the Soviet Union as a dissident scientist — which even the Poughkeepsie newspapers noted contemporaneously — into getting his Congressional representative Frank Horton (R-NY) to make a resolution to the floor of the House of Representatives. (see page 57)
Horton asked President Carter to secure the passage of his family in May 1979.
It worked.
President Jimmy Carter personally, and directly lobbied Soviet Premier Brezhnev at the 1979 US-Russia summit to sign the SALT II nuclear arms treaty in Vienna weeks later, but to no avail.
Later that year, he arranged for nearly all of the Nobel Prize Winners — including Mother Teresa — to sign a letter to the Soviets begging for the release of his family.
Lozansky rapidly cultivated very important ties in Washington’s halls of power after that, meeting and befriending Senators Bob Dole &Jack Kemp who would later run for president, and Billy Graham and Mark Levin.
In the early 1980’s, Senators Dole and Kemp helped Lozansky’s wife to obtain an exit visa from the Soviet Union, to legally emigrate to the United States.
But only after conducting a public “marriage in absentia” for the news media, ostensibly to embarrass the Soviets.
Senator Dole campaigned to be President in 1996 with Jack Kemp as his running mate.
President Ronald Reagan set up a meeting between Lozansky and then-Vice President George H.W. Bush on May 26th, 1982. Weeks later, Edward Lozansky’s wife was freed and she came to the United States.
In 1982 Lozansky secured his wife’s exit visa and turned his story into a book called “For Tatiana” which told his true life international love story with a high ranking Soviet General’s daughter, a Communist Romeo and Juliet.
He sold the book deal and movie rights for the money used to buy the Washington DC property a few blocks from the White House which he named, “Russia House.”
Dr. Lozansky formed the Andrei Sakharov Institute in 1983, to advocate for quarantined Soviet dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov, and he became its Executive Director
Bob Dole and Jack Kemp were listed as members of the board.
Vladimir Bukovsky served on the board of Lozansky’s Sakharov Institute, right around the time he formed what could be best described as an American propaganda group, Resistance International, which received considerable funding from Congress. Both groups also shared Robert Conquest and Reagan Administration neoconservative Richard Perle as members.
Some of the early World Russia Forums were co-sponsored by Resistance International.
Amazingly, in 1989 his father-in-law told the New York Times that the Soviet Union forgave him for Lozansky betraying the state; it’s a story is that strains credulity, because the former Communist state wasn’t known for its leniency, but rather its vindictiveness.
By 1998 Lozansky’s Russia House had become a fixture in DC’s scene of all things Russian.
In 2010 the Washington Post reported that Ed and Tatiana Lozansky renewed their vows — in Moscow.
Dr. Lozansky’s Unlikely Relationship With Paul Weyrich — A Hungarian Nazi Sympathizer Who Reshaped The GOP
Dr. Lozansky was very involved in advocating for the issues of Russian Jewry, which is how he became friends with men like Sandy Gradinger in Rochester
Startlingly, Dr. Lozansky’s most important political relationship was with a conservative activist whose connections to Hungarian Nazis have only been equaled by Donald Trump.
Edward Lozansky teamed up frequently with Heritage Foundation co-founder Paul Weyrich, a man whose right-hand man was a member of the Hungarian Arrow Cross, and whose groups were politically active in European far-right politics.
For example, here’s just one article Lozansky and Weyrich co-authored in 2001.
In 2008, Paul Weyrich wrote an op/ed on Newsmax (since removed) where he stated that it was Ed Lozansky who 20-years prior brought up to him the idea of Russia joining NATO.
Wikipedia sums up Paul Weyrich’s Nazi connections thusly:
Weyrich founded the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC),[5] an organization that trained and mobilized conservative activists, recruited conservative candidates, and raised funds for conservative causes.
The CSFC, founded by Weyrich, “became active in eastern European politics after the Cold War. Figuring prominently in this effort was Weyrich’s right-hand man, Laszlo Pasztor, a former leader of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party in Hungary, which had collaborated with Hitler’s Reich. After serving two years in prison for his Arrow Cross activities, Pasztor found his way to the United States, where he was instrumental in establishing the ethnic-outreach arm of the Republican national Committee.”[8]
In addition to his Nazi activities, Paul Weyrich coined the term the “Moral Majority”
He also founded the following “mainstream” conservative groups that are still very, very politically active today:
— The Council for National Policy, which is the main umbrella organization of extremist and right-wing organizations. Here’s a Southern Poverty Law Center report about their activities.
— Turned CSFC into the Free Congress Foundation, which is now known as American Opportunity, which advocates a mainstream conservative platform, headed by Va. Governor Jim Gilmour
— ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) which is a powerful multi-state lobbying shop for large corporate interests.
Dr. Lozansky’s voluminous list of acquaintances overlaps heavily with the Council for National Policy, which is a conservative umbrella organization of right-wing movements in the religious, media, ‘Tea Party’ and anti-taxation movements.
“Weyrich told me directly, at a 1990 conference, how abortion had nothing to do with the rise of the religious right.” Dartmouth Professor Randall Balmer said, telling us about his personal encounter to us with the man at the heart of the modern religious right conservative movement, which he wrote about in depth in Politico.
He said to me, ‘Absolutely, the movement began as a backlash against the loss of tax exemption at segregated religious institutions, specifically Bob Jones University.’
“Nothing got their attention,” the Professor recounted being told by Weyrich, “until we discovered the tax issue.”
More importantly, Edward Lozansky’s relationship with Paul Weyrich placed him in contact with the head of every Republican organization of consequence for the last four decades.
In turn, Paul Weyrich ingratiated himself into the upper echelon of Russian politics at the very hour of the downfall of the former Soviet government.
Weyrich expressed great concern in an August 28th, 1991 C-SPAN video about his people in Russia ten days after the Communist government fell— because the KGB considered them part of a spy program — when they lost touch for three days.
One of his people he said was Boris Yeltsin’s “campaign manager” Anatoly Chubais.
Chubais was soon thereafter appointed by Yeltsin to be in charge of the privatization of Russian state assets.
Anatoly Chubais very job involved picking winners and losers in the post-Soviet era, and he even rushed to accelerate Russian privatization sales in the mid-90s.
It’s difficult to describe a twenty-year relationship in a single column, but examining Paul Weyrich’s reaction to the FBI denying visas to World Russia Forum participants provides a window into the importance of these events to this man at the very center of the conservative movement.
He wrote a story entitled “The FBI: Slamming The Door On Important Russian Friends”:
I know it doesn’t pay to get angry in this business. Still, I can’t help being angry over a totally unjustified situation. For the past several years, the Free Congress Foundation, of which I am chairman and CEO, has co-sponsored The Russian Forum with the American University in Moscow and Russia House, both run by Ed Lozansky, a former dissident from Soviet days, who is now welcomed by the Putin government.
Last year, only a third of the Russians who applied for visas to participate in the Forum were approved. We understood. It was just six months after September 11. There was increased concern about security. So while it threw our conference into chaos, we didn’t make a federal issue out of it. After the conference, we did supply the list of names of those who were denied visas to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) who promised to take up the matter with the U.S. State Department. We never heard another word from Lott.
This year’s Russian Forum was held one week ago. Not a single Russian who applied for a visa was approved. There were, I am told, some fifty applicants who wanted to participate in the conference one way or the other. These are not folks off the street, mind you. Some are Russian businessmen. Others are Members of the State Duma. Then there are those who have served in government, such as officials at the National Academy of Sciences. Still others are academics.
While thousands sneak across the US-Mexican border every week and while there are known terrorists lurking about in Canada, hoping to find a way into this country, the place where the brakes are being applied is Moscow.
“I’m still angry but I intend to get even.”
Paul Weyrich died in 2008.
Right-Wing American Politicians Embraced The Right-Wing Of Russia Politics
First, the Sakharov Institute signed on to a Petition from the Abramoff-linked American Security Council to nix the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty (ABM).
Then the Sakharov institute board voted to dissolve the institute due to a financial dispute between Lozansky and the Sakharov family, not long before the famous scientist passed away in late 1989.
Luckily for Lozansky, right-wing millionaire Robert Krieble was elderly during that time, and about to ready to retire. First, he wanted to destroy the Soviet Union. Krieble reached out to his friend, Paul Weyrich, the Christo-fascist creator of all things far right, and suggested they go to Russia and train people. Weyrich called Jack Wheeler and the wheels began to turn.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was doing a fantastic job of failing all on its own.
Pro-Democratic forces in the Soviet Union formed the “Inter-regional deputies group” consisting of Moscow Mayor Popov, Arkady Murashev — who founded the Center For Liberal Conservative Politics (with Robert Krieble) and was a speaker at Lozansky’s 2007 World Russia Forum in DC — and Anatoly Sobchak, Putin’s murdered mentor.
Hearing what Weyrich and Krieble were doing, Dr. Lozansky jumped at the opportunity to further his agenda.
He reached out to Paul Weyrich and offered to provide translation and in November of 1989, the Krieble Institute was formed.
Literally, on one day Lozansky made the introductions to Mayor Popov, then the next day, the first training occurred and Lozansky made the claim it was a joint project between his then-called “Free Institute” and Weyrich’s “Free Congress Association.”
A few days later, a meeting of the leaders on both sides occurred and a movement was born.
The missionaries of the right would soon visit Moscow.
In early 1990, Yuri Ossipyan and Arkady Murashev came to the United States, where they met with a verifiable who’s who of the American right, like Dan Quayle, Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, and Jesse Helms.
Paul Weyrich brought them to a meeting of the Council for National Policy in Phoenix before he met with Bush about funding this venture.
In 1990 Lozansky launched the American University of Moscow as a collaboration between the Soviet far right and the American far right.
Throughout the early 1990s, all the major think tanks opened offices in Moscow.
The Heritage Foundation shared a building with Lozansky’s American University of Moscow.
In October 1991, Lozansky opened Russia House at an event with Robert Krieble, Paul Weyrich, and Mayor Popov.
The relationships and connections continued to blossom and Lozansky’s dream of an American-Russian super-alliance seemed to be drawing closer to reality.
When Paul Weyrich died in 2009, Republican Congressman Joe Wilson eulogized him on the floor of Congress thusly:
Paul Manafort Was On the Center of Democracy Board With Edward Lozansky
Research into the innocuous sounding “Center for Democracy” unveiled a few surprises.
First, the Center for Democracy operated in tandem with Krieble Institute in the Soviet Union.
They both ran training in an effort to spread right-wing propaganda, they both eventually abandoned an alliance with Gorbachev to befriend Boris Yeltsin, and the leaders of both supported Lozansky in his effort to create his fake University and his thinly veiled intelligence operation in Washington DC.
Secondly, Paul Manafort and Henry Kissinger served on the board of the CFD.
Paul Manafort, Jack Abramoff, Bob Dole, Dana Rohrabacher, and Paul Weyrich seem to be the prime movers behind the American Conservative movement’s allying with the fascist political movements of Russia, but Dr. Ed Lozansky has done more to unite these two groups than virtually anyone else.
Dr. Lozansky joined the Committee for a Free Afghanistan in 1984.
The CFA was a project between the Abramoff supported American Security Council, Accuracy in Media, and Paul Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation.
Everyone mentioned below is also part of the Council for National Policy.
Other reports place House Representative Dana Rohrabacher in Afghanistan during that time period.
John McCain’s 2008 Presidential Campaign Was Run By Paul Manafort’s Business Partner Rick Davis
Senator McCain is a staunch opponent of Russia and its authoritarian President Vladimir Putin.
However, McCain still hired Paul Manafort’s partner as his campaign manager anyway.
It led The Nation to question what a McCain presidency would’ve looked like thusly:
The story of how McCain’s closest aides and employees have been undermining his vociferously expressed opposition to Putin and Russia’s oligarchs offers a highly disturbing preview of what a McCain administration might look like.
When McCain’s campaign proclaims “country first,” one has to wonder, Which country? The one with the highest bidder?
Sen. McCain stood idly by, and watched up close and personally, as his campaign manager’s friends assisted Putin in taking over de facto control of Montenegro, while Davis introduced the Republican to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. He called the events in Montenegro:
“The greatest European democracy project since the end of the Cold War.”
Later, Oleg Deripaska became best known as the Russian oligarch named in an AP report as funding Trump Campaign manager Paul Manafort in a multi-year PR campaign to burnish Putin’s image.
That’s why Deripaska invited the Arizona Republican to celebrate his 70th birthday on his yacht in the Adriatic Sea, which he attended.
Ex-Senator Bob Dole was also on Deripaska’s payroll in his quest to gain a US entry visa, and he was also on the payroll of Montenegro.
John McCain also had anti-Putin lobbyists on his payroll — one of whom received considerable payments as an agent of the Georgian Republic — that ultimately resulted in a phone call from the GOP’s presidential candidate to that nation’s president, only a few months before Putin invaded and created the breakaway Republic of South Ossetia, which is not internationally recognized.
Ultimately, McCain decided against going full Putin during his 2008 GOP Presidential campaign, and he refused to hire Paul Manafort to run his Republican National Convention efforts — even though he was partners with Davis his campaign manager — purportedly over his Ukrainian ties.
Ultimately, Donald Trump would choose to hire Paul Manafort for the very same position in 2016, to fight a bitter intra-party battle for the sole of the Republican party at their convention in Cleveland.
It would prove to be a fateful decision.
Conclusion
Dr. Edward Lozansky has devoted his life to this goal, making some very important friendships and alliances over the years.
We have tied him to every major player, every major initiative, and every major conservative think tank, the Republican Senate caucus, Presidents and Republican candidates and more since he arrived in the United States.
His relationship with America began with a whirlwind ride to the top of national news and international politics.
That’s where he has stayed for decades, but has he been deceiving his Republican friends and acting a paid the agent of the Russian state?
Lozansky told us no on Twitter in the one question he has answered thus far:
“Your AIUM (American University In Moscow) is supposedly located on Moscow State’s campus. Where? Is that paid for by the Russian state?”
Here’s a screenshot of AIUM’s web page on his Russia House website today.
A series of investigative reports The Grand Old Putin Party — co-authored by Grant Stern and Patrick Simpson.
