Is This Why Trump Is Changing Gears? Report Says Manafort Organized Anti-NATO Protestshttps://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-campaign-chair-organized-anti-200400210.htmlA series of new revelations about Paul Manafort, the chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, may shed some light on why the Republican nominee decided he had to bring in some new blood. In stories published today by the Associated Press and the Times of London, Manafort’s work for the Moscow-friendly government of Ukraine in the years before it was overthrown is shown to have been more extensive than was originally known, and possibly
counter to U.S. interests.In its report today, The Times of London describes a memo written by a Ukrainian prosecutor who
investigated Manafort as determining that “he sabotaged US interests in Ukraine and encouraged Russian nationalism in Crimea.” The story adds:
The senior Ukrainian prosecutor alleges that in 2006
Mr Manafort orchestrated a series of anti-Nato, anti-Kiev protests in Crimea led by Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian Party of Regions — now designated a criminal organisation.
The protests forced planned Nato exercises there to be cancelled. No charges were pursued because of a lack of evidence after Crimea was annexed. Mr Manafort did not respond to a request for comment.
The memo says: “It was his political effort to raise the prestige of Yanukovych and his party — the confrontation and division of society on ethnic and linguistic grounds is his trick from the time of the elections in Angola and the Philippines. While I was in the Crimea I constantly saw evidence suggesting that Paul Manafort considered autonomy [from Ukraine] as a tool to enhance the reputation of Yanukovych and win over the local electorate.”
