I find it amazing that each day more stories emerge that cast doubt on the competence, truthfulness, and direction of our President's administration. Here's still another. Read my analysis note following the NYT article.
Trump’s
unofficial aides wheeling and dealing with Russia
Trump
aides in back-door Ukraine peace plan: NYT
AFP February 20, 2017
New York (AFP) - President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, a business associate and a
Ukrainian lawmaker have drawn up a peace plan for the Russia-Ukraine conflict,
presenting the proposal to the administration's former national security
advisor, the New York Times reported Sunday.
According to the
report, Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen hand-delivered the proposal to the office
of Michael Flynn, who resigned in disgrace a week later due to a separate
incident involving contacts with Moscow's ambassador in Washington.
The report underscored
stubborn allegations of improper Russian influence on the Trump administration,
with US intelligence agencies saying Moscow meddled in the American election in
November to tip the outcome in the Republican's favor.
According to the
Times, the amateur diplomats behind the proposal are Cohen; Felix Sater, a
business associate who helped Trump scout deals in Russia; and Andrii
Artemenko, an upstart Ukrainian lawmaker who claims to have evidence of
corruption that could oust President Petro Poroshenko.
The report said the
proposal, which outlined a way for Washington to lift sanctions against Russia,
was a plan concocted by Artemenko essentially requiring the withdrawal of all
Russian forces from eastern Ukraine.
"Ukrainian voters
would decide in a referendum whether Crimea, the Ukrainian territory seized by
Russia in 2014, would be leased to Russia for a term of 50 or 100 years,"
the Times said.
The conflict in
eastern Ukraine has cost some 10,000 lives since parts of two mostly
Russian-speaking eastern regions declared independence from Kiev's pro-Western
government following the ouster of Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych.
Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov denied having knowledge of the plan Monday, telling journalists:
"How can Russia lease its own region? The question itself is rather
absurd."
In Kiev, the report
that Artemenko, an obscure lawmaker in the minority Radical Party, raised
eyebrows, and the party's group in parliament was meeting Monday to discuss
whether to expel him.
"A lot of people
will call me a Russian agent, a US agent, a CIA agent," Artemenko told the
Times. "But how can you find a good solution between our countries if we
do not talk?"
It was not clear if
Flynn studied the proposal or took any action on it.
Trump met over the
weekend with four candidates he is considering as Flynn's replacement.
Cohen and Sater said
they had not spoken to Trump about the proposal, the Times reported.
Ukraine's ambassador
to the United States slammed the apparent back-door diplomacy.
Artemenko "is not
entitled to present any alternative peace plans on behalf of Ukraine to any
foreign government, including the US administration," Valeriy Chaly told
the newspaper.
The idea of leasing Crimea to Russia "can
be pitched or pushed through only by those openly or covertly representing
Russian interests," he said.
Analysis
- This type of free lancing by non-officials is against American laws. It does,
however, illustrate the possible truth of Russian influence noted in the now
famous Russian Dossier.
