By Savannah Webb
Opposition groups to the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) are linked to Russian government funds through a major environmental grant-making foundation, according to a retired CIA officer.
The Sea Change Foundation is a nonprofit organization that offers grants to climate mitigation projects and clean energy initiatives with a priority for policy change. According to Kenneth Stiles, former analyst for the CIA, the foundation has been linked to the Kremlin by both Congress and the Department of the Treasury.
“I was looking at Preserve Montgomery County and Friends of Nelson County, and sure enough they were getting money from Virginia Organizing, which had gotten money from Sea Change Foundation,” said Stiles.
Virginia Organizing is a nonpartisan grassroots organization “dedicated to challenging injustice by empowering people in local communities to address issues that affect the quality of their lives,” according to their website.
Stiles said he traced the money from Sea Change Foundation to Virginia Organizing through Virginia 990 — a tax form for nonprofit organizations.
“This is something that my board was made aware of,” said Brian Johns, executive director of Virginia Organizing. “I’m aware the Sea Change Foundation is out there, and we’ve said where we get our resources, but we don’t know where that’s coming from.”
This is not the only time Russia has allegedly interfered in U.S. fracking efforts, according to Stiles. White House officials have reported that the Kremlin has funded anti-fracking propaganda in the past to discourage energy independence.
“I’m not saying that Preserve Montgomery County is a known Russian agent — it’s not — but it is promoting policy that supports Russian national security objectives,” Stiles said.
In this case, however, the funding is not going directly to the MVP opposition groups because Virginia Organizing does not provide financial support to either Preserve Montgomery County or Friends of Nelson County.
“We do not directly fund them,” Johns said. “They have to raise their own funds, but we do accept grants and donations for those joint plans.”
Virginia Organizing offers a “Joint Plan of Work” program for smaller local activist groups. As a joint plan, Virginia Organizing provides support ranging from assistance with organizing events, insurance coverage and similar administrative responsibilities.
“Often folks will come to us wanting to do an event or design a flier, and we help mainly through facilitating the ideas they already had,” Johns said.
Stiles admitted that while Russian money may not be going directly to opposition groups in the New River Valley, they are still benefiting from Kremlin funds.
“They help create and maintain their social media presence — their websites,” Stiles said. “These environmentalists don’t understand that they’re actually helping Russia.”
Stiles, who began his independent research on Russian interference with the Mountain Valley Pipeline in 2017, first questioned the validity of Sea Change Foundation when he noticed activist groups are unable to request or apply for a grant from the foundation.
The foundation’s contact page specifically states that they do not accept unsolicited requests for grants, nor do they take outside donations.
“Sea Change knows exactly who it wants to give money to, which is very interesting,” Stiles said. “You can’t ask for a grant — they come to you.”
