UPDATE ON THE MANAFORT STORY by RFE/RL's News Desk:
U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, have surrendered to federal authorities in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion by associates of Trump.
Manafort arrived at the FBI's Washington field office on October 30. He arrived shortly after The New York Times and CNN, citing unnamed sources, reported that Manafort and Gates were told to turn themselves in to federal authorities.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) said in a statement that Manafort and Gates were indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 counts including "conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts."
The indictment said that Manafort and Gates "generated tens of millions of dollars in income" from work they did for Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-friendly politician who was president of Ukraine from 2010-2014, the Ukrainian government, Yanukovych's Party of Regions, and the Opposition Bloc, a successor party formed after Yanukovych was driven from power by pro-European protests and fled to Russia.
The indictment alleged that "in order to hide Ukraine payments" from U.S. authorities, Manafort and Gates "laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships, and bank accounts" from about 2006 through 2016 at the earliest. It said that they also hid their work and revenue as agents of Ukrainian political parties.
The charges are the first from Mueller investigation. The former FBI director was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation, which is conducted in parallel with U.S. congressional probes.
MORE HERE.
Manafort Indictment Welcomed In Ukraine, Long Plagued By Rampant Corruption
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- Ukrainians long angered by Paul Manafort’s work to bring what they regard as a kleptocratic, pro-Russia administration to power in Kyiv celebrated news of the American political consultant's indictment on October 30.
Manafort, who spent months as chairman of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, surrendered to the FBI along with his longtime business partner Rick Gates after days of speculation as to who was targeted in a sealed indictment from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The charges from Mueller -- who was tasked by the U.S. Justice Department with investigating alleged Russian attempts to meddle in the election and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials -- maintain that Manafort laundered millions of dollars in Ukrainian payments through overseas shell companies and used the money to buy real estate, luxury cars, and fancy suits.
Already a seasoned Washington hand, Manafort was widely credited with masterminding the political comeback in Kyiv of Viktor Yanukovych in 2010, six years after Yanukovych's flawed election victory sparked Ukraine's pro-democracy Orange Revolution.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Monday, October 30, 2017. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
Wife of Chechen accused of plotting to kill Putin shot dead near Kyiv:
By RFE/RL
The wife of a Chechen man accused by Russian authorities of plotting to kill President Vladimir Putin has been killed in an ambush near Kyiv.
Adam Osmayev said he and his wife, Amina Okuyeva, were traveling in a car on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital on October 30 when a vehicle began chasing them.
The car was shot at and Okuyeva was hit in the head, Osmayev told the Ukrainian news portal lb.ua after the shooting.
Osmayev, who was injured in the attack, said he believed the attackers meant to kill both of them, and accused Russia of orchestrating the attack.
Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko earlier said that Okuyeva died and that her husband was injured when their car was hit by a hail of bullets while crossing a railroad track.
The Hromadske TV channel quoted Ukraine’s national police as confirming the attack.
Interior Ministry spokesman Yaroslav Trakalo told Russian news agency Interfax-Ukraine that investigators planned to open a "premeditated murder" inquiry, but not a terror probe, AFP reported.
Osmayev survived an apparent assassination attempt on June 1 in Kyiv when he was shot and wounded while riding in a car. His wife returned fire, wounding the alleged attacker, who she said was posing as a journalist.
Osmayev made headlines when he was detained by Ukrainian authorities in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa in February 2012 and charged with illegal explosives possession, damaging private property, and forgery.
At the request of Russian authorities, he was later charged with plotting to kill Putin.
The European Court of Human Rights recommended that Ukraine not extradite Osmayev to Russia, after which Kyiv decided to suspend the extradition process. In September 2013, a Russian court sentenced the second suspect in the case, Ilya Pyanzin, to 10 years in prison following his extradition by Ukraine to Russia.
Osmayev was released from Ukrainian custody in November 2014, after more than 2 1/2 years in jail in connection with the initial charges.
In February 2015, Osmayev became a commander of the volunteer Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion fighting Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine after the death of its previous commander, Isa Munayev.
In an interview with The Irish Times shortly afterward, Osmayev said he and other Chechens had joined the pro-Kyiv side "to fight for the Chechen cause, which is also the Ukrainian cause and the European cause."
"If Ukraine is strong and free, it can change Russia and bring freedom to Chechnya in some years," he added.
The October 30 shooting is the latest in a wave of assassinations and attempted assassinations that has shaken Ukraine over the past 15 months. Authorities have yet to fully solve any of the at least nine cases that resulted in deaths.
Last week, lawmaker Ihor Mosiychuk of the nationalist opposition Radical Party, for whom Okuyeva worked as an adviser, was targeted in a bombing that killed two people and left him wounded in Kyiv. (w/AP, Reuters, AFP, Hromadske, UNIAN)