Russian spy or urgent political agent? The enigmatic figure at the heart of Mueller's investigation

by



[ad_1]

WASHINGTON – In the two years since special advocate, Robert S. Mueller III, investigated the existence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, few figures seem to have offered more interesting tracks than Konstantin V. Kilimnik.

A small multilingual political activist born in Ukraine while still a member of the Soviet Union, Mr. Kilimnik continued to arouse strong interest from prosecutors in his relationship with his longtime boss and mentor , Paul Manafort, and his alleged links to Russian Intelligence, even as Mr. Mueller prepares to conclude his investigation.

The full account of Mr Mueller's discoveries on the cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 presidential election is not known. But Mr. Kilimnik appears several times as a possible link, with links as enigmatic as deep on both sides.

And his relationship with Mr. Manafort, who was chairman of Donald J. Trump's campaign in 2016, encompasses two of the most intriguing elements of the Special Advisor's investigation: sharing survey data with Mr. Kilimnik. and Mr. Manafort defended, in the name of Ukrainian interests aligned with the Kremlin, plans that could have eased the economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and its allies.

Dozens of interviews, trials and other documents show that Mr. Kilimnik is an operator who moves easily between Russian, Ukrainian and American customers, playing against each other while leaving behind a mixture of contradictory suspicions. . The effort to unravel the mysteries surrounding it seems to leave questions even after the end of the special council's work.

For American diplomats in Washington and Kiev, he is a well-known figure for almost 10 years, developing a reputation for mediating valuable information such as the alliances of Ukrainian oligarchs and the country's management of foreign investment and business. sensitive criminal.

He went free to the United States and, in May 2016, he met with senior officials from the state department for a drink at the Off the Record bar, in the basement of the hotel. Hay-Adams, in front of the White House. Later that year, he visited the new US ambassador to Ukraine in Kiev.

But in a federal court in Washington, Mr. Mueller's attorneys repeatedly described Mr. Kilimnik as potentially more damaging:a former Russian intelligence officer "who" has links to a Russian intelligence service and had such links in 2016 ".

And at about the same time he was crossing Washington almost three years ago – just as Mr. Trump was winning the Republican nomination for the presidency – he had for the first time received poll data on the 2016 election by two senior campaigners, Mr. Manafort and Rick Gates. as Russia began a social media operation to help Mr. Trump's campaign.

In early 2017, a high F.B.I. An official complained that the office missed the opportunity to ask questions of Mr. Kilimnik while he was in Washington for the inaugural ceremony of Mr. Trump.

Prosecutors also reviewed the efforts of MM. Manafort and Kilimnik to hold consultations with Ukrainian and Russian politicians aligned with the Kremlin, who called for an end to the conflict that was brewing between the two countries.

These so-called peace plans could have eased the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States – a change in policy to which Mr. Trump had shown an opening during the campaign and which would have constituted a major victory for the United States. foreign policy of the country. Kremlin.

In many ways, Mr. Kilimnik is an unlikely figure for such a pivotal role in an inquiry that shaped Mr. Trump's presidency.

For some of the people he met, he was a mischievous cynic, 5 feet tall, whom his American associates dubbed "Carry-on" or "KK" and who had been turned down for a job at an oil company in Moscow. the end of 2003 or early. 2004 because he was perceived as too sweet.

At the same time, he hardly dissuaded from suspecting that he was a Russian agent. And his involvement in the talks on the Ukraine-Russia peace talks has drawn the attention of President Barack Obama's National Security Council, who saw him as an official for the oligarchs working to sell the country. 'Ukraine in favor of Moscow, said a former US official.

Mr Kilimnik, 49, a Russian citizen, now resides in Moscow. It is unlikely that he will face obstruction of justice charged by the special counsel against him and Mr. Manafort. And the once talkative actor – known for his talks with journalists, diplomats and political consultants on WhatsApp and in the bar of the Hyatt hotel in Kiev – has become black.

"It was referred to as being linked to the Russian intelligence services since the 1990s," said Michael R. Caputo, who traveled in the same circles as Mr. Kilimnik, while they both worked in the United States. US pro-democracy group offices in Moscow. in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In Kiev, Mr. Kilimnik became a valuable source for the US embassy's political staff, as he did not attempt to conceal the financial motivations of the oligarchs who financed the political parties for which he worked. said David A. Merkel, managing director. he is busy with Ukraine as Assistant Secretary of State for President George W. Bush.

"The idea that he is an expert spy seems difficult to understand," said Merkel, who headed Mr. Kilimnik in one of the pro-democracy groups. "I find that it is much more likely that these types pursue business interests without regard to their fundamental patriotic beliefs."

Mr. Kilimnik was born in the city of Kryvy Rih, in central Ukraine, while the country was part of the Soviet Union.

He already mastered Russian and Ukrainian and had studied Swedish and English at a Soviet military language academy. He joined the Russian army as a translator and stated that he was later working in Sweden for a Russian arms exporting company.

In the chaotic years that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr. Kilimnik found himself without a steady income. He managed with money from independent translation concerts before landing a job in 1995 at the office of the International Republican Institute in Moscow, or IRI, which receives tens of millions of dollars annually from the government of United States to promote democracy.

At the institute, Kilimnik met a handful of brave young Americans who would become key players in the Manafort community and Russia's investigations, including Caputo, Philip M. Griffin and Sam Patten.

Mr Griffin initially served as the right hand man for Mr Manafort in Kiev. He first brought Mr. Kilimnik into the team, only to watch Mr. Kilimnik encroach on his position and eventually officially replace him when Mr. Griffin left the team in 2011. More years Later, Mr. Kilimnik began working with Mr. Patten, advising a Ukrainian party aligned with Russia that had been Mr. Manafort's client. The arrangement has attracted the attention of the special advocate team on Mr. Patten, and Last year, he pleaded guilty to charges related to his lobbying activities with Mr. Kilimnik.

Merkel, who ran the institute's Moscow office when Kilimnik arrived on board, said Kilimnik had "taken the job for his money." Not because he believed in the mission of Ireland or by advancing the principle of free market democracy. "

Mr Merkel said that he then organized an interview with Mr Kilimnik at TNK-BP, a joint oil company established between Moscow and Russia. "They did not think he was strong enough to handle the tumult of Moscow at the time," Merkel said. "It had not become what it would become later."

While his I.R.I. According to his colleagues, Mr. Kilimnik did not seem to be a supporter of the fallen communist government or the post-Soviet leaders of Russia. He had apparently embraced the perception that he had links to Russian intelligence.

"He did nothing to dispel this notion, as it added to his past and made it more attractive to consultants and visiting women," said Mr. Caputo.

Two old I.R.I. Colleagues said that the group sacked Mr Kilimnik in April 2005 after suspicions that he leaked information about a conference of institutes in Bratislava, Slovakia, to the Russian Federal Security Service, the agency that successor to the KGB

A spokeswoman for the institute refused to answer this allegation, claiming that Mr. Kilimnik had been fired because the organization "was in possession of information that led us to believe that he was joining Paul's team. Manafort for the program in Ukraine ".

It was a "violation of our code of ethics," forbidding freelance, said the spokeswoman, "and we have not had a relationship with him since."

Mr. Kilimnik quickly made it indispensable for Mr. Manafort, who spoke neither Ukrainian nor Russian. At the time, Mr Manafort was political and economic consultant to the Ukrainian oligarch of steel and coal, Rinat L. Akhmetov, as well as the Russian oligarch of the 39, aluminum, Oleg V. Deripaska.

Mr. Kilimnik traveled extensively with Mr. Manafort, accompanying him to all of his meetings and ending up being known as "Manafort's Manafort "in Kiev.

"Paul took Konstantin under his wing, not only as a protégé, but also as his surrogate son," said Mr. Caputo.

Mr. Gates, who joined Mr. Manafort's Ukrainian team a year after Mr. Kilimnik and has since pleaded guilty to the charges brought by Mr. Mueller because of his work there, later told an associate that he knew that Mr. Kilimnik was a former GRU, according to a file filed by Mr. Mueller's team.

In an interview with the New York Times in Kiev in February 2017, Mr. Kilimnik denied having served in a Russian intelligence agency. "What would I do if I were a real Russian spy?" He said. "I would not be here. I will be in Russia. "

But for the politicians and oligarchs who were Mr. Manafort's clients, Mr. Kilimnik's alleged suspicions of information suggested Moscow's approval. It was an important selling point, especially when combined with Mr. Manafort's relationship. Political circles in Kiev felt that the recruitment of Mr. Manafort's team would open in Washington and Moscow.

Mr. Akhmetov persuaded Mr. Manafort to try to revive the political career of the former Ukrainian Prime Minister, Viktor F. Yanukovych, a figure aligned with Russia who lost the 2004 presidential election because of allegations of vote rigging.

In Yanukovych's Party of Regions, Kilimnik was "known to be the representative of Russia," said Taras V. Chernovyl, a former party member.

With the help of Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kilimnik, Yanukovych was elected to the presidency in 2010.

Mr. Manafort, who was not known for distributing wealth among his subordinates, paid Mr. Kilimnik $ 530,000 for "professional services and administrative costs related to Kyiv operations" from June 2013 to January 2014, according to the newspaper. The lobbying records of the Department of Justice, which show that the company of Mr. Manafort was paid $ 17 million over two years or so.

At that time, Mr. Kilimnik was married with two children. His family lived in a modest house not far from Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, where he spent most weekends. But he led a parallel life in Kiev, where he was seduced by the lifestyle of his boss, the khakis and the sweaters he wore at I.R.I. for tailor-made suits, a German chauffeur-driven car and evenings in a pool area.

Mr. Kilimnik joined their ranks and, in e-mails reviewed by the Times, encouraged them to appease the Russian-speaking population, which he wrote simply wanted "stable work, good wages, and improvement." for their children.

The US embassy was too focused on the Russian military threat, he said. "All the US embassy has barricades," he wrote, adding that American diplomats with whom he was in contact were "idiots".

Looking back, Mr Kovzhun said: "I can see that he could easily be a Russian agent who has just monitored the situation and is at the center of pro-Ukrainian power in the region."

With their main benefactors in exile, Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kilimnik sought to deal with factions aligned with Russia born from the ashes of Yanukovych's party.

A common goal of these factions was to pursue initiatives aimed at resolving the Ukrainian conflict on terms deemed favorable by many people in the country, and to pave the way for an effort to persuade the United States and their allies to lift their sanctions against Moscow.

Among the Ukrainians aligned with Russia who were informed, there was Oleksandr V. Klymenko, Minister of Yanukovych's government. Manafort and Kilimnik discussed draft ballots as part of a possible candidacy of Mr. Klymenko to the Ukrainian presidency in 2019, while he was living in exile in Moscow and under the sanctions regime of the European Union, according to three people informed the their activities.

Another client was a party backed by Serhiy Lyovochkin, the owner of a television channel, who was Yanukovych's chief of staff. The party, known as the opposition bloc, was late in paying Mr. Manafort's bills, according to Mr. Kilimnik and others who knew the situation, and they both hoped to persuade Mr. Lyovochkin to give him a boost.

The situation was on Mr. Kilimnik's agenda when he visited the United States a month after joining the Trump campaign of Mr. Manafort, telling employees in Kiev that He also hoped to meet Mr. Trump and possibly work with his campaign. capacity.

A White House spokesman said that Mr. Trump had been introduced to thousands of people during the 2016 campaign. Although it is possible that he met with Mr. Kilimnik, "the President does not remember it, "said the spokesman.

At the time of Mr. Kilimnik's trip to the United States in the spring of 2016, Mr. Manafort ordered Mr. Gates to transfer certain survey data to Mr. Kilimnik, including public and other company-developed surveys. private survey working for the campaign, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.

Mr Manafort asked Mr Gates to tell Mr Kilimnik to forward the data to Mr Lyovochkin and Mr Akhmetov, the person said. The representatives of Mr Lyovochkin and Mr Akhmetov stated that they neither requested nor received the data and that they would not have used them.

Mr. Mueller's team has focused on what appears to have been another debate on polls in New York on August 2, 2016. A partially redacted transcript of the court suggests that Mr. Gates, who concluded a plea agreement with the special cooperation lawyer, could have told prosecutors that Mr Manafort had presented to Mr Kilimnik detailed data from a poll at a meeting held that day in the cigar bar of the Grand Havana Room in Manhattan.

The meeting also included a conversation about a Ukrainian "peace plan", according to documents filed by the court.

Prosecutors claim that Mr. Manafort lied to them about the meeting and other interactions with Mr. Kilimnik. These lies, judged by a federal judge, violated Mr. Manafort's agreement to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for reducing the sentence. related to his work in Ukraine.

Just before Mr. Manafort was forced to resign from the Trump campaign in mid-August 2016 after reviewing his work in Ukraine, the F.B.I. has opened an investigation into the possible links of the campaign with Russia.

Michael T. Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. on conversations with the Russian ambassador related to sanctions.

At the inauguration, the investigators focused on Mr. Kilimnik and his relations with Mr. Manafort.

Yet Mr. Kilimnik went to the United States again for the inauguration of Mr. Trump. He met Mr. Manafort in the Washington area, according to Mr. Mueller's team.

The trip was only publicly revealed nearly two years later, but it was under F.B.I's radar. Peter Strzok, the agent who oversaw the investigation of the office on the interference of Russia in the election until it was reassigned and then fired for having sent SMS criticizing Mr. Trump, expressed his frustration on hearing that Mr. Kilimnik had passed without being questioned by agents.

"Everything is completely run down," wrote Mr. Strzok in a text addressed to a colleague on January 23, 2017 – three days after the inauguration – citing the missed opportunity.

One month after the inauguration, MM. Kilimnik and Manafort met again and discussed a poll planned for Mr. Klymenko's upcoming presidential campaign, according to information gathered during hearings and interviews.

The poll did not take place, according to people familiar with the arrangement, and Mr. Klymenko was not a candidate.

In unpublished messages to the Times at about the time of the meeting, Kilimnik suggested that escalating news coverage made it a target in both Ukraine and Russia.

"After a new wave of attention, I'm sure I will finally get on the radar screen of the Russian authorities," he wrote.

Mr. Manafort's allies point out that Mr. Mueller's team did not submit any evidence that Mr. Kilimnik is a Russian agent. They argue that it is unlikely that he is an agent because he was able to travel freely to the United States and deal regularly with his officials. In support of the case, Mr. Manafort's lawyers asked for and received from the government evidence that Mr. Kilimnik had contacted officials at the US embassy in Kiev.

"If he was an element of Russian intelligence, the state department investigators who met him over the years should be the subject of an investigation," he said. Mr. Caputo.

[ad_2]

Source link