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Kellyanne Conway Registers as Foreign Agent of Ukraine

State of the Union: The former Trump advisor will lobby for U.S. politicians to attend a conference hosted by a Clinton-connected Ukrainian oligarch.
Kellyanne Conway at 2024 RNC
Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images

According to a recent filing, Kellyanne Conway has registered as a foreign agent of Ukraine in compliance with the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act. Conway, who served as senior counselor to President Donald Trump between 2017 and 2020, has not only declared that she will lobby in support of Ukraine, but will attempt to get U.S. “lawmakers, experts, and opinion makers” to attend the Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference in Kiev next month.

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Conway will also engage in other lobbying on behalf of Ukraine, for instance, by organizing meetings with Ukrainian veterans and American lawmakers. 

YES is an organization created by the Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk in 2004 with the goal of promoting Ukrainian membership in the European Union. YES’s board includes a former presidents of Poland (Aleksander Kwasniewski) and Estonia (Kersti Kaljulaid), and former prime ministers of Denmark (Anders Rasmussen, also a former Secretary General of NATO), Sweden (Carl Bildt), and Finland (Sanna Marin). 

Pinchuk is well-connected to American elites, including the Clinton family, to whose foundation he donated $13.1 million between 2006 and 2014. YES’s annual conferences have also frequently hosted the former President Bill Clinton, and Pinchuk also attended Clinton’s 65th birthday party in Los Angeles. Furthermore, during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, Pinchuk was in frequent contact with the State Department through the lobbyist Douglas Schoen, a former Clinton operative.

Conway has recently been accused of promoting attacks on Trump’s Ukraine-skeptical vice-presidential pick, J.D. Vance. “I’m not anti-Vance, I was pro-Rubio,” claimed Conway, denying the allegations.