拜登政府提名 Michael Sfraga 为北极特别大使时，他未能披露其与俄罗斯和中国的深厚联系。参议院预计将在周二对 Sfraga 的确认进行投票 —— 这是在他的提名被共和党人搁置一年多后。Sfraga 多次赴俄中旅行，并曾在普京总统演讲的活动中发言。
他拥有阿拉斯加州立大学地理学学位，目前担任极地研究所和美国北极研究委员会主席。他致力于领导美国与八个北极国家（加拿大、丹麦、芬兰、冰岛、挪威、瑞典、俄罗斯联邦和美国）进行外交关系。
Sfraga 的外国联系引发了参议院外交关系委员会第一共和党成员 Jim Risch 的关注，后者于 2023 年致信 FBI 要求对 Sfraga 进行调查。Sfraga 协调了与中国国防与情报机构关联的学术机构的联合合作伙伴关系，并在不同出版物中对中国和俄罗斯两大对手表示赞赏，这一切都在他被参议院外交关系委员会工作人员质询后披露出来。
Sfraga 已经三次更新他的信息披露记录，声称忘记提及自己的行程和与中国、俄罗斯领导人的合作历史。Risch 随即对 Sfraga 的提名提出了异议，导致共和党内部分歧。阿拉斯加州参议员 Lisa Murkowski 却推荐了 Sfraga，并为他辩护称“在北极的专长极为丰富”，“需要时间去深入理解”。
Sfraga 在与中国的合作中担任关键角色，他协助美国阿拉斯加费尔班克斯大学与中国多家大学签订了备忘录，包括上海交通大学——这所大学因高水准国防研究和疑似网络攻击关联而受到高度关注。这份合作包含了对 UAF 的 IT 基础设施的访问权限、政策与法律审查以及任何北极地区的议题研究与交流项目。
2021年，Sfraga 在由美国制裁的俄罗斯企业 Transneft 和 Sovcomflot 与雪弗龙赞助的活动中作为圆桌会议成员出席了“在 Fort Ross 对话中的合作与环境可持续性”会议，并与中国大使 NIKOLAI KORCHUNOV 共同参与讨论。该活动强调了中俄在北极问题上的合作。
在2021年的一次采访中，Sfraga 表示俄罗斯与美国未相互理解，并称“北极是俄罗斯DNA不可或缺的部分”。他在 2022 年 Newsweek 的一篇文章中表达了对北极地区因美俄关系紧张而不再隔离的担忧。他认为，北极理事会取消了包括俄罗斯在内的防务负责人参与的论坛是一个负面信号。
然而在 2017年国际北极论坛上，Sfraga 则表示与普京总统有直接互动，这引发了外界关注他的中立性。在中国论坛、北极圈会议和中国 – 北极合作圆桌会议上，Sfraga 多次参与关于北极议题的讨论，并与中国代表就这一地区的未来进行过深入交流。
参议院在 2023 年 3 月对 Sfraga 进行听证时，他表达了与俄罗斯关系的新态度：“俄罗斯入侵乌克兰使得与俄罗斯几乎无法开展合作，在北极地区也不例外。”
尽管在多个场合强调中国可能在北极地区的活动构成威胁，Sfraga 的立场也反映了寻求与中国建设性合作的尝试。例如，2016年美国-北欧极地研讨会上，他表示中美之间的思维方式存在差异：“在中国，他们思考的是长篇叙事；在美国，我们只考虑四秒、商业广告和标语。但我们需要快速行动来处理北极冰川继续融化带来的机遇与挑战。”
总体而言，Sfraga 的提名反映了跨领域合作的复杂性以及美国外交政策在应对中国和俄罗斯日益增长的存在时面临的挑战。
新闻来源：www.foxnews.com
原文地址：Senate to vote on contentious Arctic ambassador nominee with deep ties to China and Russia
新闻日期：2024-09-24
原文摘要：
When the Biden administration nominated Michael Sfraga to be special ambassador to the Arctic, he failed to disclose his deep history with Russia and China. The Senate is expected to vote on Sfraga’s confirmation on Tuesday – over a year after his nomination, which was held up by Republicans who claim he is too close to U.S. adversaries. Sfraga has traveled extensively across Russia and China, and even spoke at an event where Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the headline address. An Alaskan and geographer by background, Sfraga chairs the Polar Institute and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. He is looking to lead the U.S. in diplomatic relations between the eight Arctic nations: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation and the U.S. His foreign ties prompted Sen. Jim Risch, Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, to write a letter in 2023 asking the FBI for help in vetting Sfraga, Fox News Digital has learned. He negotiated joint partnerships with Chinese academic institutions tied to defense and intelligence services and spoke glowingly about the two U.S. adversaries in interviews for different publications – all of which he failed to reveal until confronted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff. Sfraga had to update his disclosures three times, claiming he had forgotten to mention his record of trips and collaboration with Chinese and Russian leaders, Republicans have said. Risch placed a hold on Sfraga's nomination, which prompted Republican infighting. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R–Alaska, recommended Sfraga to the Biden administration, and she defended him to the committee. "If there is any challenge that you have as a committee, it’s that his expertise in the Arctic is so voluminous," she said. "It takes a while to wade through all of it." Sfraga was key in negotiating memorandums of understanding – legal documents that establish a partnership – between the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and Chinese universities, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which has been designated a "high threat" due to its high-level defense research and alleged ties to cyberattacks. The partnership included access to UAF’s IT infrastructure and involvement in policy and legal reviews on any Arctic region subject, in addition to research and exchange programs. In 2021, Sfraga spoke on a virtual panel on "Cooperation and Environmental Sustainability in the Arctic at Fort Ross Dialogue," an event sponsored by two U.S.-sanctioned Russian companies, Transneft and Sovcomflot, and Chevron. His co-panelist was Russian Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Cooperation Nikolai Korchunov. RUSSIA, CHINA HOLD BIGGEST WARGAMES SINCE SOVIET ERA The event stressed cooperation with Russia on Arctic issues. In a 2021 interview with Voice of America’s Russia service, Sfraga claimed Russia and the U.S. were "not understanding each other" and that "the Arctic is an integral part of Russia’s DNA." In a 2022 Newsweek article on mounting U.S.-Russia tensions in the Arctic, Sfraga is quoted lamenting that the Arctic is no longer insulated from strains in the bilateral relationship. He said it is "not a good thing" that the Arctic Council canceled a forum with defense chiefs, including Russia’s, following Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea. "I certainly understand the motives, but it's not a good thing to have that happen," he said. In 2021, after Russia's annexation of Crimea but before the war in Ukraine, Sfraga argued for cooperation with Russia in the Arctic. "If both nations, especially the United States, are looking for places to actually cooperate with the Russians like we do in the International Space Station and trying to find a path towards some amount of productive engagement, I would argue that the Arctic may provide for us at least a few of those pathways to a more predictable and stable relationship between these two countries," he said. At his Senate hearing in March, he struck a tougher tone with Russia. "Russia’s war against Ukraine has rendered cooperation virtually impossible with Russia, including in the Arctic," he said. "The PRC (China) is attempting to reshape the global aid rules based system in its favor, and increasingly working with Moscow to elevate and advance its presence and its influence in the Arctic in ways that threaten our interests." In 2017, Sfraga attended the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia, an event headlined by Putin and attended by numerous other state-sanctioned people. He was a speaker on a panel entitled "Arctic: Territory of Professionals." When questioned about the event in a Senate hearing, Sfraga said, "It’s hard to ignore half of the Arctic, which is Russia, and in the North, it is a big neighborhood, but a small community, and you must engage. And indeed, at one of those conferences, President Putin did provide a keynote address, but I had no interaction with President Putin at all." Reports show Sfraga has taken at least half a dozen trips to China to participate in panels on Arctic issues. In October 2019, for example, he attended the Arctic Circle China Forum in Shanghai, where he spoke to the panel on the topic of, "The Arctic Council: A Model for Regional Cooperation."In November 2018, he attended the 11th Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland, where he co-chaired the breakout session "China's Arctic Policy: Opportunities and Challenges" with Dr. Yang Jian, vice president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. In April 2016, he attended the Fulbright Arctic Initiative Symposium in Washington, D.C., where he met with Chinese representatives from the Polar Research Institute of China and the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration. He also delivered a keynote speech on "The Arctic in a Globalized World" at the China-Nordic Arctic Cooperation Symposium in Beijing. Additionally, during a 2018 event entitled, "The Polar Silk Road: China’s Arctic Ambitions," Sfraga is quoted as saying, "In the United States, we think four seconds long; we think commercials and sound bites and bumper stickers. But the Chinese think in long narratives; they go over decades... [The United States] think[s] about reaction versus being proactive... as we see the polar ice continue to retreat -- and there’s both opportunity and challenge there." "As the Arctic ice continues to retreat, there’s both opportunity and challenge there. How we best situate our own interests and those of like minds is probably best considered quickly. That doesn’t mean we’re pitted against China. I think there are ways we engage with them in a very productive, meaningful dance forward – and that can be for the good of a lot. But we should not be lulled into a false narrative either way." US MUST EXPAND NUCLEAR ARSENAL IN FACE OF RUSSIA AND CHINA THREAT, WARNS TOP OBAMA DEFENSE ADVISOR Sfraga also has ties to the Arctic Circle – an organization that some have raised concerns about giving China an outsized voice on Arctic issues. Unlike the Arctic Council, which only includes Arctic nations, the Arctic Circle includes China and is its preferred platform to engage on Arctic issues. Under Sfraga, the U.S. Arctic Research Council became an official Partner to the Arctic Circle, but his attendance at Arctic Circle events dates back to at least 2016. Olafur Grimsson, chair of the Arctic Circle, described Sfraga as a "good friend" and said he looked forward to collaboration when he was named head of the Research Council. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Grimsson’s name appeared on a list of pro-Russian European experts who Russia intended to use in an influence campaign targeting the Baltic States. A report by Ukraine state news agency Ukrinform notes that Grimsson opposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 as Iceland’s president and called for turning the old U.S. airbase in Keflavik over to the Russians, and took part in Russian government-organized events.
