OBAMA CAMPAIGN MANAGER BAKU VISIT SPARK

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAKU 000123

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/13/2019
TAGS: AJ KDEM KPAO PREL
SUBJECT: OBAMA CAMPAIGN MANAGER BAKU VISIT SPARK
SPECULATION AND DEBATE

Classified By: Ambassador Anne E. Derse for reasons 1.4 (b,d).


1. (C)Summary: A Feb. 8-10 visit to Azerbaijan by former
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe sparked a flurry of
speculation and protest that bounced between Baku and
Washington. Azerbaijan's opposition press speculated that
Plouffe's quick visit was a sign that the Obama
Administration was reaching out to Azerbaijan informally,
perhaps probing Baku as a possible destination for the
President's promised visit to a Muslim capital. As the trip
became public knowledge and U.S. media criticized Plouffe's
collaboration with lobbyists hired by the Government of
Azerbaijan, the Baku opposition media jumped on the story
full force to highlight the Aliyev government's poor
international reputation.


2. (C) President Obama's Campaign Manager, David Plouffe,
traveled to Baku Feb. 8-10 on personal travel coordinated by
the Washington Speakers Bureau, with which he signed up
following the election. Embassy only became aware of the
visit Feb. 5, when representatives of the Western University
contacted the Embassy looking for an American flag to
decorate their stage for the planned Feb. 9 event. Upon
confirming the plans for Plouffe, The Embassy reached out to
the visit organizers to ensure Embassy officials had an
opportunity to brief Plouffe prior to his public appearances.
By Feb. 6, invitations for the university event went out,
and the Azerbaijani press began to produce instant analysis.
The Embassy simply noted that Plouffe was coming to Baku as a
private citizen, not a representative of the U.S. Government.
Local reporting on Plouffe's visit was repeated by RFE/RL's
English language website Feb. 6, which, in turn prompted
attention from the Washington Post, which carried the news in
its Feb. 9 edition.


3. (C) By the time Plouffe arrived in Baku and met with
Ambassador Derse, PAO and POL-ECON Counselor the morning of
Feb. 9, the media firestorm was fully raging. Embassy agreed
that we would continue to note the private nature of
Plouffe's visit while highlighting the very positive messages
about how new communication technologies empowered young
voters in the speech he was to deliver at Western University.
Plouffe was appreciative of Embassy support and counsel, and
agreed that it would be valuable to get his key messages on
democracy out to the widest audience possible.


4. (C) Local media protested the exclusion of reporters from
the Western University speech, and that protest, combined
with a Feb. 10 Wall Street Journal report, kept the story
alive in Azerbaijan. Following remarks made at a
USAID-sponsored conference at the Parliament Feb. 11,
Ambassador Derse reassured the press that Plouffe's visit was
simply that of a private citizen, with no hidden messages nor
agendas. She also underscored the "very important message"
about citizen empowerment via new information technologies
that Plouffe outlined in his speech. Her remarks were widely
covered by Azerbaijani TV newscasts and by newspapers of all
political stripes, including government and ruling New
Azerbaijan Party-owned organs.


5. (C) To ensure that Azerbaijanis get the pro-democracy
message, Embassy produced a transcript of his remarks, which
have been distributed in both English and Azerbaijani. While
repeating the private nature of the visit, Embassy has
attempted to defuse the situation.


6. (C) Local and international media have speculated as to
who orchestrated the visit and for what purpose. An NGO with
government connections, the Association for Civil Society
Development in Azerbaijan reportedly orchestrated the project
in collaboration with U.S. lobby firm Bob Lawrence and
Associates. The opposition press has largely focused on
theories that the GOAJ must be trying to buy a direct
connection to the White House via its lobbying efforts, but
they have also explored the possibility that the Obama
Administration wanted to open an unofficial channel for
communication with Azerbaijan, including the possibility of
selecting Baku as the destination for the President's
promised trip to a Muslim capital. Comments from well-known
political analyst Zardust Alizade in the Feb. 12 opposition
daily Azadliq were typical: "I think he was not here just
because of the lecture -- Washington is trying to clarify,
check something through unofficial ways."


7. (C) On February 10, President Aliyev's senior legal

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adviser Shahin Aliyev told the Embassy that the purpose of
sponsoring the Plouffe visit was purely public relations. He
admitted that its execution had been both costly and
disastrous in terms of Azerbaijan's public image. He said
that he intended to report to the President that this was yet
another failure of the expensive U.S. lobbying firms hired by
the Azerbaijani Government.


8. (C) Comment: Plouffe was contrite for having stepped
into a more complicated geopolitical mess than he expected,
but the message he brought to about democracy and citizen
empowerment was an excellent one. The radioactive nature of
Azerbaijan's international reputation on democracy and human
rights was highlighted by this episode.

DERSE
DERSE