In a report that could potentially hurt Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid, a prominent US daily said that "a flow of cash" made its way into the Clinton Foundation during a deal that gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the US.
According to the report in the New York Times, a deal spearheaded by Canadian mining entrepreneurs who made donations to the foundation and were at the time selling their uranium company to the Russian state-owned nuclear energy company.
The report said that the donations, which included USD 2.35 million from a principal in the deal, were not publicly disclosed by the foundation, even though Clinton, then the Secretary of State, had signed an agreement with the Obama administration requiring the foundation to disclose all donors as a condition of her becoming secretary of state.
The report said that in January 2013 Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom, had taken over a Canadian company with uranium-mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West.
The deal made Rosatom one of the world's largest uranium producers and brought Russian President Vladimir Putin closer to his goal of controlling much of the global uranium supply chain.
"But the untold story behind that story is one that involves not just the Russian president, but also a former American president and a woman who would like to be the next one," the report said.
It added that "at the heart of the tale" are several men, leaders of the Canadian mining industry, who have been major donors to the charitable endeavours of former President Bill Clinton and his family.
Members of that group built, financed and eventually sold off to the Russians a company that would become known as Uranium One.
"Beyond mines in Kazakhstan that are among the most lucrative in the world, the sale gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States," the report said.
Since uranium is considered a strategic asset, with implications for national security, the deal had to be approved by a committee composed of representatives from a number of United States government agencies.
Among the agencies that eventually signed off was the State Department, then headed by the former First Lady, the report said.
