Trump campaign manager Manafort has Ukrainian history
Donald Trump's campaign chief Paul Manafort previously helped run electoral campaigns in Ukraine. Former president Victor Yanukovych was one of those he led to victory. What role does he play in politics?
..... "The New York Times" and "Washington Post" newspapers both quote cyber experts who claim that those emails had been hacked by the Russian government. Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook said the hack was in Donald Trump’s interest.
Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, was quick to write on Twitter: "The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC emails, which should never have been written, because Putin likes me." The assumption, however, that Russia's president "likes" Trump, may not be far-fetched.
The Ukrainian issue is indicative of Trump's attitude towards Vladimir Putin's policies. It has become the hot-button issue in US-Russian relations. During their recent convention, Republicans scrapped a call to supply Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons from their party platform.
... US media reports say the wording of the Republican Party platform's Ukraine-related chapter was watered down after an intervention by Paul Manafort
[,url]http://www.dw.com/en/trump-campaign-manager-manafort-has-ukrainian-history/a-19432826[/url]
"Irrespective of who's behind that initiative and of what the motives are, ultimately the platform is different from what a number of leading Republicans had called for in Congress - military aid for Ukraine, in the form of lethal weapons."
- Steven Pifer, a former US ambassador to Ukraine and now a Senior Fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institute
- Manafort served as chief
political advisors to Ukraine's "Party of Regions" that became the main political force in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections of 2006 and 2007 – receiving a third of the vote
- Manafort was a
key aide to Victor Yanukovych who was elected president of Ukraine in February, 2010
- according to former journalist and current Ukrainian MP.
Manafort earned up to 20 million dollars (18 million euros) for his efforts
- Yanukovych , who was closely associated with Putin,, escaped to Russia after his administration was overthrown by mass pro-Western protests in February, 2014,
-
Manafort continued to be the political consultant to the Ukrainian "Opposition Bloc," successor to the "Party of Regions"
- former US ambassador to Ukraine Pifer believes that Manafort, in his new position as Donald Trump's campaign manager, will act in favor of Russia as well:
"If he becomes president, Trump will seek more cordial relations to Russia and reduce US support for Ukraine."
Consider the following:
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1. Trump's ongoing criticism of NATO and threat not to honor US commitments if Russia were to invade member nations
2. Trump's prior statements in 2014 that he had direct and indirect contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin (which he now denies)
3. positive statements that Putin has made about Trump
4. changes, initiated by Trump supporters, to the 2016 Republican Platform that weakened US support of Ukraine against Russian intrusions into Crimea and eastern border
5. the hacking and release of DNC emails designed to underrnine the Democratic Convention, benefit the Trump Campaign and influence the presidential election is widely thought to be associated with Russia
6. Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has close ties with the pro-Putin Ukrainian "Party of Regions," its successor the "Opposition Bloc" and former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych who fled to Russia in 2014