As the Mueller investigation continues, a new report reveals a connection between Paul Manafort and a former Russian spy concerning debts Manafort owed.

Time Magazine dropped an in-depth report this morning on how Victor Boyarkin was in contact with Manafort during the 2016 campaign. Boyarkin told Time that he was trying to get Manafort to pay back his debts to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

One interesting facet of this story is that it was apparently not easy to track him down to speak with him:

Only in early October was a TIME reporter able to track Boyarkin down. In the company of a senior Russian diplomat and two young assistants from Moscow, he attended a conference in Greece that was organized by one of Putin’s oldest friends, the former KGB agent and state railway boss Vladimir Yakunin. “How did you find me here,” was the question Boyarkin asked, repeatedly, when confronted about his ties to Manafort during a coffee break at that conference. Once he agreed to discuss their relationship, it was mostly to confirm the basic facts, often with a curt, “Yes, so what.” (He did not respond to numerous requests for comment after his name appeared on the U.S sanctions list on Dec. 19.)

Boyarkin said, “He owed us a lot of money… And he was offering ways to pay it back.”

He also claimed that he was approached by the special counsel’s office and his response was to tell them to “go dig a ditch.”

[image via screengrab]

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