The public relations firm Ketchum [3], which "works with the highest levels of Russia's Government and the state-owned energy monopoly Gazprom [4]," has hired the Alston & Bird [5] lobby firm to work on the account. The lobby firm "of former Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole [6] and Tom Daschle [7] will deal with trade, energy, economic and politico-military issues at a $35K-a-month rate," at least through the end of May 2009, reports O'Dwyer's. Russia paid Ketchum $2.9 million from August 2008 to January 2009. The PR firm helped Russia finesse its invasion of Georgia in August 2008 and its cutting off natural gas [8] supplies to Ukraine. The firm secured a CNN [9] interview for Vladimir Putin, "coordinated President Dmitry Medvedev's Council on Foreign Relations [10] event (in November 2008 [11]), organized a meeting for Washington reporters with Kremlin spokesperson Alexey Pavlov and arranged a Wall Street Journal meeting with Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev." Previously, Ketchum placed Russia-themed paid supplements [12] in the Washington Post and helped Putin become Time magazine's "Person of the Year [13]" for 2007.