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The murder story involving the 'Ukrainian Putin,' who just met with Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph W. Giuliani has made a habit of working with Ukrainian politicians of questionable repute in his search for information to help President Trump. And even as Trump is on the verge of being impeached over the whole thing, Giuliani was in Ukraine again on Thursday, meeting with yet another one.
The story behind this one, though, is particularly dark.
Andriy Derkach is an independent member of Ukraine’s parliament who has caught Giuliani’s eye by pushing for his own government to investigate former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden. As Time magazine reports, though, Derkach hasn’t really produced any information suggesting actual wrongdoing, and he hasn’t gotten much traction.
Derkach’s name is a big one in Ukraine. A story about him might have even helped sparked that country’s 2004 Orange Revolution. That story involved a murder plot that implicated his father....
The story behind this one, though, is particularly dark.
Andriy Derkach is an independent member of Ukraine’s parliament who has caught Giuliani’s eye by pushing for his own government to investigate former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden. As Time magazine reports, though, Derkach hasn’t really produced any information suggesting actual wrongdoing, and he hasn’t gotten much traction.
Derkach’s name is a big one in Ukraine. A story about him might have even helped sparked that country’s 2004 Orange Revolution. That story involved a murder plot that implicated his father....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/05/murder-story-involving-ukrainian-putin-who-just-met-with-rudy-giuliani/
5 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
There is no bottom of the barrel. Read the Wapo article if you can get past the paywall. It's a goodie.
Unlike a lot of the other articles found when searching on 'Rudy Giuliani Andriy Derkach,' WaPo isn't glibly labeling Derkach as a 'Ukraine lawmaker' while soft pedaling his KGB connections and making his claims and Giuliani's activities sound normal.
For instance, if this is what most people are reading, they are definitely missing the real story:
Ukrainian tells of Giuliani meeting in Kyiv 
Reuters does better than a regurgitation of mushy talking points, and adds some additional interesting tidbits:
Ukraine lawmaker met Giuliani to discuss misuse of U.S. taxpayer money in Ukraine
Derkach has previously disseminated information about Hunter Biden and Burisma that Giuliani has cited as evidence in his criticisms of the Biden family.
In the same Facebook post, Derkach also said that he and a lawmaker from Zelenskiy’s party had invited several senior figures in Washington to help form the interparliamentary group on corruption.
These included Republican Representative Devin Nunes, White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
The U.S. embassy was not immediately available for comment.
Giuliani’s trip coincided with an apparently unconnected visit to Kiev by Philip Reeker, the acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
In the same Facebook post, Derkach also said that he and a lawmaker from Zelenskiy’s party had invited several senior figures in Washington to help form the interparliamentary group on corruption.
These included Republican Representative Devin Nunes, White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
The U.S. embassy was not immediately available for comment.
Giuliani’s trip coincided with an apparently unconnected visit to Kiev by Philip Reeker, the acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
Crooks and Liars gets right to the point:
Whose Payroll Is Rudy Giuliani On In Ukraine?
Rudy is visiting with KGB-trained (corrupt) former head of Ukrainian intelligence services Andriy Derkach to hatch a cover story about Hunter Biden in Ukraine in order to protect Trump, and ratfck Biden. But no one knows who is paying him for all of this activity. [snip]
"Nominally he's representing the President of the United States, and he's going there to collect reporting for this counter narrative that they've tried to spread about Joe Biden, about Ukrainian influence in the election," Foer said.
"But the people that he's meeting with in Ukraine on the ground are representatives of oligarchs," he told Lawrence. "They're some of the more shady politicians in the country."
"Nominally he's representing the President of the United States, and he's going there to collect reporting for this counter narrative that they've tried to spread about Joe Biden, about Ukrainian influence in the election," Foer said.
"But the people that he's meeting with in Ukraine on the ground are representatives of oligarchs," he told Lawrence. "They're some of the more shady politicians in the country."
The Independent mostly agrees with C&L and gives yet more context to how idiotic this junket is:
Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani continues mysterious Ukraine adventures
While an official presidential seal is absent this time around too, many in Kiev assume that the lawyer is once again in town on Mr Trump’s bidding. And that makes the timing of the intervention particularly suspect.
On Monday, Paris will play host to what many bill as an historical four-way summit between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany.
Five years into a bloody war that has killed over 13,000, Mr Zelensky is desperate to talk up peace. But it will be his first face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin and not everyone is convinced he can achieve a breakthrough.
Given the delicate circumstances, it is unclear why Mr Trump sent such an odd message four days before the meeting.
“No one was expecting his messenger here,” the independent expert Volodymyr Fesenko said.
“But it likely won’t make much of a difference. Zelensky is too busy with other things right now than to deal with Trump and Giuiliani's games.”
On Monday, Paris will play host to what many bill as an historical four-way summit between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany.
Five years into a bloody war that has killed over 13,000, Mr Zelensky is desperate to talk up peace. But it will be his first face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin and not everyone is convinced he can achieve a breakthrough.
Given the delicate circumstances, it is unclear why Mr Trump sent such an odd message four days before the meeting.
“No one was expecting his messenger here,” the independent expert Volodymyr Fesenko said.
“But it likely won’t make much of a difference. Zelensky is too busy with other things right now than to deal with Trump and Giuiliani's games.”
Sorry to go on and on, but I am furious that Rudy is free to blunder overseas with no regard to how his actions affect Ukraine or US-Ukraine relations (FARA, anyone?) much less how obvious it is that he is fabricating a tissue of lies to interfere in yet another election. With few exceptions, US media is doing a piss poor job of actually covering this story. Wapo is one of the news outlets at least bothering to try, so thanks for posting this, mia.
