Celia Schmidt

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has finally released his conclusions of the investigation into Russia’s role in the US Presidential Election 2016. The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with Russians, the press reported.

But there is a curious detail: most people charged have no connection to Russia, as in Manafort’s case. The former Trump campaign manager has been accused of money laundry and illegal foreign lobbying for Ukraine.

Thus, the Mueller investigation findings are leading to Kiev, not Russia. Moreover, Ukraine did admit to interfering in the 2016 US election helping the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.

In this regard, there are fair questions to raise: why American citizens are indicted and sentenced with less charges while the evidence of a foreign conspiracy is omitted? Where are fair debates over the issue? Why there were no special committee hearings to determine the truth?

It is clear: a new investigation is coming. The US prosecutors need to interrogate Ukrainian politicians and members of the Clinton campaign as well as to probe the activity of Ukrainian lobbyists in Washington.

Thus, the audio recording made public in the Ukrainian media was one piece of evidence of Ukraine’s interference. According to it, a person with a voice similar to the voice of the head of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), Artem Sytnyk, admitted that he had supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US election.

His office was responsible for publicly disclosing the contents of the Ukrainian «black ledger», which implicated Paul Manafort, to the media. The document contained a list of secret payments made by Ukraine’s Party of Regions to Manafort.

Earlier, the county administrative court of Kyiv had pledged the director of the NABU Artem Sytnyk, and a member of the Ukrainian Parliament Sergey Leshchenko guilty of publicizing the pre-trial investigation materials concerning Paul Manafort and election interference. The information was spread illegally and inflicted damage on the foreign policy of Ukraine.

Translation: Admit unlawful acts of the director of the NABU A. Sytnyk and the Ukrainian MP S. Leshchenko concerning the disclosure and distribution of the information about D. Trump’s campaign chairman P. Manafort and the presence of P.Manafort’s name and signatures in the lists of “The Party of Regions’ black ledgers” in the materials of the pre-trial investigation, which was the result of interference in the electoral processes of the United States of America in 2016 and harmed the interests of Ukraine.

Eventually, a slew of incriminating information forced Paul Manafort to resign as Donald Trump’s campaign chairman in August 2016, just in the middle of election campaign. Serhiy Leshchenko, the Ukrainian MP, intended to share his gloat with his Facebook followers by posting a message stressing that “after such a blow Trump would not recover”.

Translation: “The Party of Regions’ black ledgers” saved the world. Manafort, who was fed from Yanukovich’s hands, leaves with dishonor. Guess, after such a blow Trump will not recover. P.S. We can clearly see the reaction of the Ukrainian politicians involved in “Yanukovich’s black ledgers”. Political culture – you’ve either got it or you haven’t”.

Another confirmation of the Ukrainian officials’ overt support of Hillary Clinton was the anti-Trump publications on social media. However, as soon as the Republican had won, the Ukrainian politicians, in particular, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov and Ukrainian MP Oleg Lyashko began to remove massively their anti-Trump narratives from their social media pages.

Certainly, the US President did not forgive the Ukrainian leadership actions. On his Twitter page, Donald Trump criticized the Ukrainian efforts to “sabotage” his campaign.

Moreover, in August 2017, it became clear that on the election day Petro Poroshenko sent Hillary Clinton a telegram, in which he congratulated her on the victory in the elections even before the announcement of the voting results. The then Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin personally delivered it. The president himself did not comment on this at all. His assistants strongly rejected all the suspicions of illegal actions during the election campaign. However, all these facts speak for themselves.

Despite this, Washington does not refuse financial assistance and cooperation with Ukraine. The intervention in the US Presidential Campaign 2016 and the leverages issues undoubtedly overshadow the current position of Petro Poroshenko. Moreover, the growing scandal related to accusations against our diplomat gives us reason to doubt the trustworthiness of the head of state and his future plans as a presidential candidate for the second term.