AP Big Story – AP Sources: Manafort tied to undisclosed foreign lobbying
Follow the bouncing ball on these stories very carefully.
Let’s start with the second item:
A leaked memo from a senior Ukrainian prosecutor published Wednesday further details Manafort’s involvement with former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
“It was [Manafort’s] political effort to raise the prestige of Yanukovych and his party — the confrontation and division of society on ethnic and linguistic grounds is his trick from the time of the elections in Angola and the Philippines,” reads the memo obtained by The Times. “While I was in Crimea, I constantly saw evidence suggesting that Paul Manafort considered autonomy [from Ukraine] as a tool to enhance the reputation of Yanukovych and win over the local electorate.”
Not good. But it’s also weird. Note:
The senior Ukrainian prosecutor alleges that in 2006 Mr. Manafort orchestrated a series of Anti-Nato, Anti-Kiev protests in Crimea led by Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian Party of Regions–now a designated criminal organisation. The protests forced planned Nato exercises there to be cancelled.
2006 in Ukraine. What else was going on then? Billmon’s musings on this is a map of sorts:
My own take: There was a period both during & after UKR’s “Orange Revolution” (2004-2010) when DC explored a “re-evaluation” of Yanukovych.
Orange Revo basically flopped, devolved into infighting corruption. The Blob saw (or thought it saw) potential for Yanukovych rehabilitation
Manafort (deep connections to Reaganite wing of The Blob; history of working with dictators) was a logical conduit to Yanukovych.Policy in DC changed radically, but Manafort didn’t (as back channel to the new post-2014 opposition? Or just in it for the $$$? Who knows.)
Yes. The cables I cited from the US embassy praising Yanukovych’s non-existent economic reform effort was a Wikileak.
Also like way MSM continues to narrowcast Manafort story, ignoring his ties to The Blob when he was advising Yanukovych. Message discipline.
All of this is the ignored context behind NYT’s hit job. Flushed straight down the semi-official media memory hole.
That said, there’s an amount of decent information in this February 24, 2012 article , if you want to see how MSM has reshaped story into one in which Manafort is rogue Putin agent.
Agree with Billmon that the Jamestown org article is worth reading because it mostly recites facts in an objective manner. However, a disclosure is appropriate: Jamestown Foundation (a Cold War warrior think-tank: about Major supporter of Arkady Shevchenko, a CIA asset in the USSR. (about as reputable as Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen).)
A takeaway is that in 2006 Yanukovych was the “west’s guy.” It was a bit like the wild west with the “orange,” “red,” and “blue” teams jockeying for power during the 2002-2009 period. Why would Yanukovych have been plotting to cede one of his power bases to Russia before his second run for President in 2009?
In kicking over the Manafort-Yanukovych-Putin rock, even Salon felt compelled to disclose other crawly things under it.
Donald Trump’s campaign chairman helped a pro-Russian governing party in Ukraine secretly route at least $2.2 million in payments to two prominent Washington lobbying firms in 2012, and did so in a way that effectively obscured the foreign political party’s efforts to influence U.S. policy.
People with direct knowledge of Gates’ work said that, during the period when Gates and Manafort were consultants to the Ukraine president’s political party, Gates was also helping steer the advocacy work done by a pro-Yanukovych nonprofit that hired a pair of Washington lobbying firms, Podesta Group Inc. and Mercury LLC
That’s good. One Democratic and one Republican lobbyist. (Didn’t realize that Vin Weber was still around and doing very well for himself.)
…Podesta’s firm has previously registered its activities with the Justice Department over its work for Albania, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, India, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, the Maldives, Moldova, Morocco, Somalia, South Korea, South Sudan, Vietnam and others. Mercury has disclosed to the Justice Department its work on behalf of government interests in the Cayman Islands, Nigeria, Qatar, Somalia, Turkey, one of the United Arab Emirates, Uganda and others.
(Let’s set Azerbaijan aside for a closer look on another day.)
Hillary campaign manager calls on Trump reveal all “employees & advisers ties to Russian or pro-Kremlin entities”
Akin Gump, firm fundraising for Hillary & its partner serves as campaign treasurer, was hired by Yanukovych to dig up dirt on opposition.
Mark Penn, a longtime adviser to Hillary (& supposedly still advising Bill) worked for Gazprom & his firm B-M was contracted by Yanukovych
What about Hillary campaign ties? Tony Podesta lobbies for a Russian bank against Obama’s sanctions
Billmon again:
You can go on and on with this stuff: There is Russian AND Ukrainian oligarch $ spread all over DC.
(Check out Ihor Kolomoyskyi if you like falling down rabbit holes.)
This iceberg is very deep and there more than enough “bad guys” associated with both US political parties and the current nominees.
People who live in glass houses should be careful when throwing stones.
