By Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration has tapped a former army special operations officer with significant business experience who once oversaw a large U.S.-Russia investment forum to manage Europe and Russia policy at the National Security Council, two U.S. officials said.
The appointment of Charles McLaughlin, an alumnus of President Donald Trump’s first term, is further evidence that the president is hungry to advance U.S. business interests in Russia and Ukraine – even as the conflict between the two nations continues unabated.
It is also an indication that the administration may be trying to rebuild the NSC after a late May purge so thorough that the entire team working directly on the Ukraine war was dismissed, a move that confounded some European diplomats.
In a May social media post, Trump portrayed Russia as a country ripe for new business opportunities, and expressed interest in increasing trade between the U.S. and its former Cold War foe.
“There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Its potential is UNLIMITED.”
His administration has also made doing business in Ukraine a priority. In late April, Ukraine and the U.S. signed a deal to create a joint investment fund and grant the U.S. preferential access to Ukrainian mineral resources.
The board overseeing that fund is set to meet for the first time in July, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said earlier this month.
McLaughlin, whose formal title is senior director for European and Russian Affairs, has decades of Army Special Forces experience, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has also worked in management consulting, including in the defense sector.
Notable in his CV is his tenure during the first Trump administration when he served as a senior advisor to the president of the Development Finance Corporation, an institution currently acting as the U.S. partner in the U.S.-Ukraine minerals fund that is being stood up.
McLaughlin was also the executive director of the Russian Investment Symposium at the Kennedy School of Government in the early 2000s, according to his LinkedIn profile. That symposium has since been discontinued.
Among the companies McLaughlin has worked for are McKinsey & Co, Accenture and Bridgewater Associates. During Trump’s first term, McLaughlin also held positions in the NSC and State Department.
Neither the White House nor McLaughlin responded to a request for comment, though McLaughlin updated his LinkedIn this weekend to reflect his new appointment.
He replaces Andrew Peek, the former senior director for European and Russian affairs who was forced out in the May purge.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk and Stephen Coates)
