https://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/20150120_spindoctors_mr.pdf

In 2006, the year that Vladimir Putin became President of the G8, for the first time Russia contracted Western PR agencies – GPlus in Europe and Ketchum in the US – to work with the Presidential press team. In 2007 Gazprom, the Russian state gas company, also became a client of the PR firms, who are both part of the Omnicom family of agencies... GPlus, with offices in Brussels and London works to connect Russia and Gazprom to top EU officials and European and international media, with subcontracts for PR consultancies Dimap in Berlin, Reti in Rome, and formerly, Portland Communications in London... In 2014 Russia ceased to be a Portland client, after an eight year contract ended.

Rwanda

An informal group of MEPs in the European Parliament called the ‘Friends of Rwanda’ was launched in 2010 withan event with the Ambassador of Rwanda in Brussels as well as Rwandan ambassadors from across Europe. The group was founded by former European Commissioner Louis Michel (no longer an MEP), and other MEPs involved include Charles Goerens and Mariya Gabriel-Nedelcheva. The

group was launched two months after the 2010 UN report accused Rwanda of war crimes in the DRC.

Portland Communications form part of this ‘PR machinery’, confirming, “We do work with the Rwandan High Commission. Portland is a London-based PR company set up by an advisor to formerUK Prime Minister Tony Blair.. It also employs on a part-time contract the most notorious of Blair’s spin doctors, Alastair Campbell... GPlus is subcontracted by Portland to lobby for Rwanda in the EU..

Another British firm, BTP Advisers, has also worked for the Rwandan Government. Head of BTP Mark Pursey, international media relations adviser to the Rwandan Government, was secretly recorded in 2011 by the Bureau of Investigative Journalists. He described building an ‘attack site’ – a webpage targeted at people who “over-criticised” about “who did what in the genocide”

Kazakhstan

...Despite flawed trials, courts upheld the prison sentences of people convicted in the aftermath of violent clashes in December 2011…. Torture remains common in places of detention.”..This is the context within which former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is working as an “official advisor” to Nazarbayev, appointed in 2011 with a multimillion-euro deal for Tony Blair Associates... His former advisors while in office, now at London-based Portland Communications secured a PR role for “strategic and public affairs consulting and media activities”, and Blair’s “close associate” Sir Richard Evans, once head of BAE, is currently head of Kazakhstan’s state holding company, Samruk.

A front for Kazakhstan in Brussels - A new Brussels-based think-tank the Eurasian Council on Foreign Affairs (ECFA) launched in Brussels in November 2014 and is intended to bring Kazakhstan closer to the EU. ... Portland Communications has worked for Kazakhstan

since 2011.

According to the Open Society..."Web records indicate that Portland and at least one other firm, [German] Media Consulta, appeared to

tinker with Wikipedia entries concerning Kazakhstan and its president, Nursultan Nazarbayev…"

Qatar

In 2014 Portland Communications swapped Russia for Qatar as their biggest client.402 Portland received criticism for ‘astroturfing’ – that is, creating a false impression of a grassroots movement – over Qatar-related activities after a UK Channel 4 investigation claiming it had helped set up a blog attacking critics of the controversial 2022 Qatar World Cup. ‘

Related Post: Carlisle Diocese and BAE

Michelle Skeer, the Deputy Chief Constable of Cumbria, has been chosen as the preferred candidate to take over the force’s top job in the spring...Ms Skeer was one of the officers criticised by the independent police watchdog over the force’s “unstructured and disorganised” investigation into the death of 13-month-old Poppi in 2012... Prosecutors are still considering a coroner’s finding that Poppi was sexually assaulted before her death in in Barrow-in-Furness...

The end of the Cold War and subsequent decrease in military spending saw high unemployment in the town through lack of contracts; despite this, the BAE Systems shipyard remains operational as the UK's largest by workforce and is undergoing a major expansion associated with the Dreadnought-class submarine programme.[3] Today Barrow is a hub for energy generation and handling. Offshore wind farms form one of the highest concentrations of turbines in the world, including the single largest with multiple operating bases in Barrow.

Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said of his time in office that he "came to learn that the chairman of BAE appeared to have the key to the garden door to number 10. Certainly I never knew No 10 to come up with any decision which would be incommoding to BAE."[211] As well as employing in-house lobbyists, BAE Systems also employs a lobbying agency called Portland PR;[212] many of Portland PR's staff have worked at the upper echelons of both Labour and Conservative governments.

Current and previous clients include the British Bankers' Association,[9] Tullow Oil,[10] BTA Bank, AkzoNobel and AB InBev on behalf of its Stella Artois brand.

AkzoNobel Director was Abraham E “Barry” Cohen who served as lCMEC Vice Chairman of Board from 2003 to Nov. 2012 (until his death)