Washington (CNN) Paul Manafort was pressured by a former Russian associate to pay back millions he owed during the time he was running Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, according to a new report from Time magazine.

Former Russian intelligence officer Victor Boyarkin was in touch with Manafort during the 2016 US presidential campaign on behalf of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to the Kremlin, the magazine reported Saturday.

Boyarkin told Time magazine that he contacted Manafort to collect the debt he owed to Deripaska.

"He owed us a lot of money," Boyarkin told Time this past fall. "And he was offering ways to pay it back."

"I came down on him hard," Boyarkin added.