At height of Russia tensions, Trump campaign chairman Manafort met with business assoc from Ukraine

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post


At height of Russia tensions, Trump campaign chairman Manafort met with business associate from Ukraine

By Rosalind S. Helderman,, Tom Hamburger and Rachel Weiner June 19 at 6:00 AM

In August, as tension mounted over Russia’s role in the U.S. presidential race, Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, sat down to dinner with a business associate from Ukraine who once served in the Russian army.

Konstantin Kilimnik, who learned English at a military school that some experts consider a training ground for Russian spies, had helped run the Ukraine office for Manafort’s international political consulting practice for 10 years.

At the Grand Havana Room, one of New York City’s most exclusive cigar bars, the longtime acquaintances “talked about bills unpaid by our clients, about [the] overall situation in Ukraine .?.?. and about the current news,” including the presidential campaign, according to a statement provided by Kilimnik, offering his most detailed account of his interactions with the former Trump adviser.

Kilimnik, who provided a written statement to The Washington Post through Manafort’s attorney, said the previously unreported dinner was one of two meetings he had with Manafort on visits to the United States during Manafort’s five months working for Trump. The first encounter was in early May 2016, about two weeks before the Trump adviser was elevated to campaign chairman.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-height-of-russia-tensions-trump-campaign-chairman-manafort-met-with-business-associate-from-ukraine/2017/06/18/6ab8485c-4c5d-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html

[Achilleaze]

1. republicans selling out America to the freaking evil empire* russia sucks

republican traitors to America must be prosecuted and incarcerated. Loyalty to the republican Draft Dodger in Chief is clearly betrayal of America.

* per ronald reagan

[Igel]

2. And here's a couple of things not said.

Don't know Kilimnik's age. But if he was 18 or older in 1991, he served in the Soviet Army. That's usually called the "Russian Army" these days, even by people like Putin who know better. It's because they claim the Red Army's victory over the Germans not so much as a Soviet victory but a Russian victory.

There are a variety of "spy schools". In the US, though, if you're going to be trained to speak Russian as a spy and need to learn quick you're almost certainly going to go to DLI. Defense Language Institute. On the other hand, I had a student who studied Czech at the DLI because his job in the US Army stationed in Germany was to pick up and pass on Czech communications back in the very late '80s. Sort of spying, but not James Bond. (My job was to teach him Russian, but it was at a civilian university and I was a lowly teaching assist.)

I've also known translators and interpreters with no military or NSA or CIA experience that went to DLI, either for translation/interpretation studies or just because they offered a strange language that was of use. In other words, a language school for spies also trains non-spies. Attending one doesn't mean much, even in the former USSR or in Russia. (What's strange is that as a result you know the names and faces of pre-spies.)

[MosheFeingold]

3. My experience with Ukrainians

Is limited to a good friend who immigrated to the USA after WWII.

I asked him who he'd kill first: a Soviet or a Nazi?

He replied, "I'd kill the Nazi first and the Russian second. Business before pleasure."

Long way of saying, meeting a Ukrainian, if it means anything (other than a willingness to do business in that neck of the woods), runs contrary to the Russian conspiracy theory.