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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYes, Manafort is on trial for crimes in the U.S. But his work in Ukraine helped to destroy a country
By Diana Pilipenko
August 17 at 1:57 PM
Diana Pilipenko is the associate director for anti-corruption and illicit finance at the Center for American Progress.
During Paul Manaforts trial for tax evasion and bank fraud, the public has heard over-the-top tales of illicit trysts in London, ostrich leather jackets and overpriced antique rugs. Bankers, IRS agents and accountants have testified at length about how Manafort defrauded financial institutions and the U.S. government. Yet little attention has been paid to the constituency that perhaps suffered most from Manaforts deeds: the people of Ukraine.
I grew up in Ukraine, and reading the court documents detailing Manaforts work for the countrys former president, Viktor Yanukovych, left me disgusted and depressed. The people who suffered from Yanukovychs corrupt regime are my relatives, my friends and my former neighbors. They are not abstractions or numbers on a ledger, and under Yanukovych their lives took a back seat to state-sponsored greed.
Many in Ukraine credit Manafort with the 2010 resurrection of Yanukovych, who lost a bid for president in 2004 after serious electoral fraud on his behalf was exposed, triggering massive protests.
Manafort worked for a long time so that Yanukovych could come to power and use that power for his own corrupt schemes, not reform, said Serhiy Leshchenko, a member of Ukraines parliament and the investigative journalist who published evidence of the $12 million in payments from Yanukovychs Party of Regions to Manafort. As another Ukrainian reporter put it, whats been happening in the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, is actually the first serious trial to address political corruption in Ukraine under Yanukovych.
Yanukovych defanged law enforcement and the courts, stifled the free press, undermined integration with the European Union, welcomed Kremlin influence and, along with his cronies, allegedly stole up to $100 billion from the country equivalent to nearly 90 percent of Ukraines economic output last year. In March 2014, the U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned Yanukovych as someone who contributed to destabilizing Ukraine, alongside his Russian allies. In this respect, Manafort also bears part of the blame for Russias illegal takeover of Crimea and Moscows bloody war in the east, which has claimed at least 10,000 lives and continues today.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/08/17/yes-paul-manafort-is-on-trial-for-crimes-in-the-u-s-but-his-work-in-ukraine-helped-to-destroy-a-country
DBoon
(22,403 posts)"...defanged law enforcement and the courts, stifled the free press, undermined integration with the European Union, welcomed Kremlin influence..."
some else we know?
BigmanPigman
(51,640 posts)One of Manafort's daughters emailed the other, "You know that our money is blood money". They know that people lost their lives in part due to their father's greed.
malaise
(269,219 posts)and killed those people
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)His own daughters words: he has blood on his hands
2naSalit
(86,840 posts)The Hague is monitoring this case. I suspect that if nothing happens to him in our legal system for whatever reason, he may be in trouble with the ICC too.
maxsolomon
(33,432 posts)And then upon reflection, I wasn't.
Manafort made his money aiding Putin's criminal schemes, and Trump didn't give a shit. Money is money; it doesn't matter how you get it.