In a series of missteps over the weekend, Donald Trump failed to quell concerns that he would push a decidedly pro-Russian policy platform if elected president. On Sunday, the White House hopeful offered a convoluted answer about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the Russian annexation of Crimea, further calling into question the role the Kremlin may be playing in the U.S. election and thrusting Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, once more into the spotlight for his controversial business ties to Russia.
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, Trump made a number of comments that both raised red flags about his understanding of geopolitics in Eastern Europe and renewed questions about his sympathy toward Russian interests. “Just so you understand. [Putin] is not going to go into Ukraine, all right?” Trump responded when asked why his staffers worked to weaken an amendment in the G.O.P. platform about providing assistance to Ukraine, adding that he had nothing to do with the changes. “You can mark it down and you can put it down, you can take it anywhere you want.”
Stephanopoulos interrupted, quickly pointing out that Russia already invaded Ukraine when it annexed Crimea in early 2014. Trump’s response was not clarifying: “O.K., well, he’s there in a certain way,” he said, pointing the finger at President Barack Obama. “But I’m not there. You have Obama there. And frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama with all the strength that you’re talking about and all of the power of NATO and all of this. In the meantime, he’s going away. He take—takes Crimea.”
Trump’s answer on Crimea is the latest in a series of comments that have fueled speculation about the relationship between Russia and his campaign, particularly its chairman, Paul Manafort. In the past two weeks, Trump has suggested that the U.S. would not necessarily come to the aid of the Baltic states in the event of a Russian invasion, throwing the future of the NATO alliance into doubt, and he benefited when the Democratic National Committee was hacked—apparently by Russia—resulting in the release of 20,000 e-mails that embarrassed the Democratic Party and forced its chairwoman to resign, leading to speculation of a Kremlin plot to get Trump into the White House.
Such whispers center on Manafort, who began working with businessmen in Ukraine in the mid-2000s, The New York Times reports. Manafort was later hired to manage Viktor Yanukovych’s successful 2010 presidential campaign in Ukraine, and worked to reinvent his image and that of his pro-Russian political party, the Party of Regions. According to State Department cables released by WikiLeaks, Manafort was among the political consultants hired “to do the nipping and tucking” as Yanukovych worked to change the image of the Party of Regions “from that of a haven for mobsters into that of a legitimate political party.” Yanukovych was ultimately removed from power in 2014, before Putin’s annexation of Crimea, and has since found sanctuary in Russia.
Beyond helping makeover Yanukovych, the Times reports that Manafort “had a voice in decisions about major American investments in Ukraine,” citing Oleg Voloshyn, a former spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry. Manafort also reportedly struck a number of lucrative deals with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. And BuzzFeed News reports that Manafort handled millions of dollars for Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch with reported ties to organized crime. These connections, among others, have prompted U.S. officials to question whether the Trump campaign should have access to classified briefings. “Given his dubious foreign connections, it’s fair to assume that many in the intelligence and national security community would be extremely wary of him handling or receiving material at even the lowest level of classification,” Adam Blickstein, a former aide to the secretary of defense, told BuzzFeed News.
While a connection between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign has not been proven, beyond a smattering of compliments exchanged with Putin, the G.O.P. nominee’s lack of geopolitical knowledge about Eastern Europe and Manafort’s long history of working in the region continues to raise questions. After Trump’s interview with Stephanopoulos, Manafort backed his latest client’s stance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” arguing that Trump “views Russia as a foreign power that has it’s own interests at stake.” Manafort has previously denied that the Trump campaign has ties to the Kremlin, and has dismissed the suggestion that Trump has not released his tax returns because they would reveal ties to Russian oligarchs. “It has nothing to do with Russia, it has nothing to do with any other country than the United States and his normal tax auditing process,” he said last week.
