Throughout the Mueller investigation, missing pieces of the story provided to the media made making the connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government difficult. On Saturday, a very big piece of that puzzle fell into place.
When sanctions were issued against Russia, one of the names listed in those sanctions was Victor Boyarkin. As it turns out, Boyarkin was Manafort’s contact in Russia because he was the man sent to pressure Manafort about more than 19 million dollars that he owed to the Russian government. According to TIME magazine:
‘In his only interview with the media about those connections, Boyarkin told TIME this fall that he was in touch with Trump’s then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in the heat of the presidential race on behalf of the Russian oligarch. “He owed us a lot of money,” Boyarkin says. “And he was offering ways to pay it back.”’
The former Russian intelligence officer, Victor Boyarkin, tells TIME that he has been approached by the office of Special Counsel Mueller.
Boyarkin's response to those investigators? Boyarkin tells TIME: "I told them to go dig a ditch." https://t.co/vBRJQRnJ3s
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 29, 2018
Mueller’s team has approached Boyarkin for answers, although he’s refused to comply. However, his connection to Manafort may be a crucial part of the conclusion of Mueller’s investigation.
‘But those connections could be potentially important to the Special Counsel’s inquiry. They would mark some of the clearest evidence of the leverage that powerful Russians had over Trump’s campaign chairman. And they may shed light on why Manafort discussed going right back to work for pro-Russian interests in Eastern Europe after he crashed out of the Trump campaign in August 2016, according to numerous sources in the TIME investigation.’
In emails to “former” #Russian??spy Konstantin Kilimnik, Paul Manafort offered Oleg Deripaska “private briefings” on Trump’s campaign to “get whole.” Manafort’s Moscow contact “our friend V” now revealed as ANOTHER “former” #Russian??spy Victor Boyarkin.?https://t.co/RAuZlUfT6D
— Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) December 29, 2018
Manafort had racked up millions in debt overall, but more than 19 million of it was in money borrowed from Russia. That debt resulted in pressure from Boyarkin that Manafort needed to find a quick solution to.
‘According to allegations contained in court records filed in the U.S. and the Cayman Islands, he was also deeply in debt to Boyarkin’s boss, the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who was demanding money from Manafort over a failed business deal in Ukraine and other ventures.
A former Russian intelligence officer Victor Boyarkin was a key link between a senior member of the Trump campaign and a powerful ally of Putin, Oleg #Deripaska. Boyarkin says it fell to him to collect the debt from Manafort:
“I came down on him hard.”https://t.co/WiYTPBAehQ— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) December 29, 2018
Like a mob boss, Boyarkin worked his pressure on Manafort until he began offering insider access to the presidential campaign. This is a direct link between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin, something that’s been elusive before these findings.
‘Boyarkin says it fell to him to collect the debt from Manafort. “I came down on him hard,” he says. But the American proved elusive. In a petition filed in the Cayman Islands in 2014, lawyers for Deripaska, a metals tycoon with close ties to the Kremlin, complain that Manafort and his then-partner had “simply disappeared” with around $19 million of the Russian’s money.’
Manafort owed 'a lot of money' to Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch whose company is taken off the sanction list.
Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort Was Pressured by Former Russian Spy Victor Boyarkin Over His Debts: 'Time' https://t.co/bIJsHQBZj4
— Nguyen #fbpe #fbr #ifb (@haaohaoo) December 29, 2018
Emails and other communications have revealed the extent of what Manafort had to offer, and none of it looks good for Trump in the Mueller investigation.
‘In a series of emails sent that spring and summer, Manafort tried to offer “private briefings” about the presidential race to Deripaska, apparently, as one of the emails puts it, to “get whole.” Reports in The Atlantic and the Washington Post revealed those emails in the fall of 2017. Among the questions that remained unanswered was the identity of Manafort’s contact in Moscow, the one referred to in one of the emails as “our friend V.”’
For much more on this story, see the full version here.
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
