The Price of Betrayal: How Trump’s Team Profits from Ukrainian Genocide

This is not about “ethical questions,” “conflicts of interest,” or “questionable ties.” This is direct economic complicity in genocide. And it’s happening openly, demonstratively, without any attempt to hide.

How Petrodollars Become Missiles: The Economics of Genocide

To understand what Lanza is actually doing, we need to trace the chain from gas stations to Shaheds:

Step 1: Lukoil as a Source of Military Budget

Lukoil is Russia’s second-largest oil company:

• Produces 1.5 million barrels of oil per day
• Annual revenue: $90+ billion
• Taxes to RF budget: $15–20 billion annually

These taxes go directly to:

• Production of Kalibr cruise missiles ($6.5 million each)
• Iranian Shahed drones ($20–50k each)
• Contract soldier salaries (200k rubles per month)
• Artillery ammunition (3 million shells per year production)

Step 2: What Mercury Public Affairs Does

According to Politico, Lanza’s firm “interfaces with the U.S. government on the transaction” and obtains extensions from the Treasury Department for Lukoil’s asset sales.

Let’s translate this from corporate speak into human language:

Lukoil must sell its non-Russian assets by January 17, 2026 due to sanctions. Among these assets are 200+ gas stations in the U.S., refineries, and oil fields. If the sale doesn’t happen — assets are frozen, revenues lost.

Lanza sabotages these sanctions. He negotiates extensions, finds “right” buyers, ensures Moscow maintains control over assets through proxies.

Step 3: The Mathematics of Murder

What preserving 200 U.S. gas stations means for Lukoil:

• Each station: $5–10 million annual turnover
• 200 stations: $1–2 billion annually
• Taxes to RF budget: $150–300 million

With this money, Russia can produce:

• 23–46 Kalibr missiles OR
• 6,000–12,000 Shahed drones OR
• Pay a contract army of 1,500–3,000 men for a year

Every extension Lanza obtains is measured in dead Ukrainians.

Timeline: Working Under Presidential Cover

The sequence of events excludes the “coincidence” version:

• November 5, 2024 — Trump’s election victory
• January 20, 2025 — Trump’s inauguration
• November 2025 (per Politico — “last few weeks”) — Lanza begins work for Lukoil
• November-December 2025 — Mercury Public Affairs obtains extensions from Treasury Department
• December 11, 2025 — Politico publishes the information
• January 17, 2026 — new deadline for Lukoil asset sales

This is no longer preparation for power. This is work under the cover of a sitting president.

Lanza begins working for a sanctioned Russian company 10 months after Trump’s inauguration. His firm obtains extensions from the Treasury Department of Trump’s administration. This means that either Trump directly sanctioned this work, or he created a system where his people can profit from circumventing sanctions against Russia with impunity.

This is only possible in one case: Trump and Putin have a long-term arrangement that operates at the system level, not as separate deals.

The Legal Loophole: How to Legalize Treason

The key to the entire scheme is Politico’s formulation:

“Because the work is not encompassed by FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] or covered under LDA [Lobbying Disclosure Act] and involves a commercial transaction, Lanza does not have to register.”

Let’s decode this legal magic:

FARA requires registration if you work for a foreign government.
LDA requires registration if you engage in political lobbying.

But Lanza works for a “commercial company” on a “business transaction”.

Formally: Lukoil ≠ Kremlin. Circumventing sanctions ≠ political lobbying.
In reality: Lukoil is a source of military budget. Circumventing sanctions is helping a warring party.

This is the classic scheme of laundering treason through commercial structures. The same mechanism Russia used with Schröder, but now—faster, more aggressive, more cynical.

Schröder vs. Lanza: 20 Years of Degradation

Gerhard Schröder became chairman of Nord Stream in 2006, a year after leaving the chancellorship. Even then it caused a scandal. Even then Schröder tried to maintain an appearance of decency: “commercial project,” “mutually beneficial partnership,” “Europe’s energy security.”

Bryan Lanza becomes a Lukoil consultant a month after Trump’s victory, before inauguration. No explanations. No justifications. No attempts to hide.

Schröder received his position when Nord Stream wasn’t yet associated with war.
 Lanza receives a contract in the third year of full-scale war, when Lukoil directly finances genocide.

The difference shows not personal immorality, but a systemic change. What 20 years ago required at least a mask of decency is done openly today.

When fascism wins, it stops hiding.

Questions Without Answers

Reuters reports: American bank Xtellus Partners is the leading bidder for Lukoil’s assets.

Who stands behind Xtellus Partners?
Who will actually gain control of 200 gas stations?
Will the real owner change, or just the sign?
Where will profits go—to American taxes or through offshore accounts back to Moscow?

These questions are not asked by major American media. Politico publishes the fact—and leaves it without investigation. As if this were a normal business contract, not complicity in war crimes.

The Price of Silence

Lanza also lobbies for Bank of America and Qualcomm. That is, he’s integrated into the network of big American business. His firm Mercury Public Affairs is respectable, influential, with access to the highest levels of power.

And this respectable firm helps circumvent sanctions on a company that finances the production of missiles killing Ukrainian civilians.

Why is there no criminal prosecution?
Why is there no Congressional investigation?
Why do American banks continue working with Mercury Public Affairs?

Because the system has already capitulated. Not circumvented — capitulated. When a future president openly negotiates with a dictator waging genocidal war, when his people publicly profit from this war, when mainstream media publishes this without consequences — it means:

Democracy lost. Fascism won. Now they’re discussing the price list.

Genocide as a Business Model

Things must be called by their names:

Bryan Lanza is not a “consultant.” He is an economic accomplice to genocide.
Donald Trump is not a “controversial president.” He is an accomplice to Russian fascism.
Mercury Public Affairs is not a “PR firm.” It legalizes war crimes through commercial structures.

When Lanza obtains an extension for Lukoil, he’s not “doing business.” He’s securing financing for weapons production that kills Ukrainians.

When Trump allows his people to work for sanctioned Russian companies, he’s not “insufficiently controlling conflicts of interest.” He’s monetizing genocide.

Every dollar Lukoil saves thanks to Lanza’s work becomes a budget ruble in Moscow. Every budget ruble becomes a shell, missile, drone. Every shell, missile, drone becomes a dead Ukrainian — civilian, soldier, child.

This is not a metaphor. This is a literal chain of cause and effect.

Conclusion: When the Price of Life Becomes Negotiable

The Lanza-Lukoil case is not an isolated scandal. It’s a systemic model that now operates openly:

1. Russian companies financing war seek sanctions circumvention
2. American politicians with power to change rules sell this access
3. Commercial structures legalize treason through “business transactions”
4. Money flows from West to Moscow, from Moscow to the front
5. Ukrainians die, American politicians get rich

Schröder did this after leaving power and with an appearance of decency.
Lanza does this while in power and demonstratively.

This is not moral degradation. This is a shift in the balance of power. Fascism is strong enough to stop hiding.

The question is no longer whether Trump made a deal with Putin. The question is how much he charged for betraying his country, its values, and the lives of millions of people.

Source: Daniel Lippman, Daniel Barnes, Caitlin Oprysko, “Lanza lands Lukoil account”, Politico, December 11, 2025.

Oleh Cheslavskyi — independent historian and analyst specializing in deconstructing imperial narratives.

Originally published at spilno.org