Here's the Op-ed Manafort was "editing"

[DonViejo]

Oleg Voloshin: Paul Manafort, European integration’s unknown soldier for Ukraine

By Oleg Voloshin. Published Dec. 7. Updated Dec. 7 at 8:16 pm

Editor’s Note: The following op-ed submitted to Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Olga Rudenko on Dec. 4 has triggered controversy after U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s ties to Russia, accused former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort of ghostwriting the piece to help influence the criminal case against him. If Manafort did so, it would be a violation of a court order prohibiting Manafort from trying the case in the press, according to prosecutors. Bloomberg’s Stephanie Baker reported on Dec. 5 that Mueller is now seeking to deny Manafort’s bid for freedom from house arrest before his trial because of the editorial. Manafort is charged with conspiracy to launder money and acting as an unregistered agent for Ukraine. Voloshin told the Kyiv Post that he wrote the op-ed himself, sending it only to Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime associate of Manafort in Ukraine, and Manafort for fact-checking. “It is totally mine,” Voloshin said. “Paul has absolutely nothing to do with it. Eighteen months ago I gave comments along same lines to the Guardian. I was just annoyed at a McClatchy publication that falsely claimed Manafort had derailed Association Agreement with the European Union. The fact it was meant for the Kyiv Post only proves there was no intervention on behalf of Paul. It is rather difficult to influence U.S. public opinion with publication in Ukraine. As a native speaker, you can easily identify that the text was penned by a non-native speaker. So it has nothing to do with editing or writing by Paul or any other American.” The op-ed was submitted to the Kyiv Post by Irina Milinevskaya, an ex-Inter TV executive, now working for the 43-member Opposition Bloc, which includes many members of the now-defunct Party of Regions led by the exiled Yanukovych.

The European Union – Ukraine Association Agreement might have never appeared but for a person now falsely accused of lobbying Russian interests.

The night of March 4, 2010, turned out to be a nervous one for the staff of Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow where I used to be a press attaché.

The first visit to Russia of newly elected President Viktor Yanukovych was on the brink of cancellation. The Kremlin wouldn’t grant the already scheduled visit an official status. Russian state media also canceled earlier agreed interviews with members of the Yanukovych team. The explanation was rather simple although possibly unusual for contemporary observers who had a mistaken and simplified perception of the fourth Ukrainian president: The Russian leadership was annoyed at Yanukovych’s decision to pay his first visit after inauguration to Brussels before heading to Moscow.

Even Viktor Yushchenko, upon taking office as Ukraine’s third president in 2005, did the opposite. There was one person the Russians blamed for this “treason of special relationship with brother nation”: the political consultant to Yanukovych, American strategist Paul Manafort. Manafort persuaded Yanukovych that going first to Brussels would demonstrate to all that, as president, Yanukovych intended to bring the changes required to allow Ukraine to apply for formal membership in the EU.

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https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/oleg-voloshin-paul-manafort-european-integrations-unknown-soldier-ukraine.html

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