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The Kremlin Inches Closer to the Biden PlotLev Parnas pointed his finger at Dmytro Firtash.January 18, 2020 Franklin FoerStaff writer for The AtlanticSomewhere near the heart of the Ukraine scandal is the oligarch Dmytro Firtash. Evidence has long suggested this fact. But over the past week, in a televised interview and in documents he supplied to Congress, Rudy Giuliani’s former business partner Lev Parnas pointed his finger at the Ukrainian oligarch. According to Parnas, Giuliani’s team had a deal with Firtash. Giuliani would get the Justice Department to drop its attempt to extradite the oligarch on bribery charges. In return, according to Parnas, the oligarch promised to pass along evidence that would supposedly discredit both Joe Biden and Robert Mueller.Parnas’s account, of course, is hardly definitive. Throughout his career, he has attempted to inflate his importance to make money. (Firtash apparently paid him $1 million for his services, though it’s still not totally clear what those services were.) And his description of Firtash’s involvement raises as many questions as it settles. Still, the apparent centrality of Firtash should inform any assessment of Giuliani’s escapades and the entire Ukraine story.When commentators invoke the name Dmytro Firtash, it is usually followed by mention of his alleged connections to Russian organized crime and the fact that he is close to the Kremlin. These descriptions, however, understate his ties to Vladimir Putin. In his book Russia’s Crony Capitalism, the Atlantic Council’s Anders Aslund describes Firtash as a “Kremlin Influence agent.†A Ukrainian parliamentarian who investigated Firtash has called him “a political person representing Russian interests in Ukraine.†That representative of Russian interests is who Giuliani and Parnas apparently enlisted as their partner.Read more at: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/firtash-kremlin-biden/605188/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share