Russia accuses Ukraine of undermining Trump

Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of trying to sabotage Donald Trump’s presidential campaign over the summer by purposely implicating Trump’s former campaign manager in a corruption investigation, Politico reported.

{mosads}According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was dragged into a corruption scandal in Ukraine because that country’s leaders wanted to sink the campaign.

“Ukraine seriously complicated the work of Trump’s election campaign headquarters by planting information according to which Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, allegedly accepted money from Ukrainian oligarchs,” Zakharova told reporters.

Manafort stepped down from the campaign in August after Ukrainian authorities said they discovered his name in a secret ledger detailing illicit cash payments under President Viktor Yanukovych. 

Manafort worked as an adviser to Yanukovych, who was staunchly pro-Vladimir Putin, until 2010, and consulted for opposition parties in the country after his client fled in 2014 amid an uprising.

This week, reports have emerged that Manafort is consulting with the president-elect’s transition team, though Trump’s team adamantly denies that.

“Paul Manafort has absolutely no involvement with the transition team or communication with the president-elect,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Politico.

He was spotted by pool reporters going into the Starbucks at Trump Tower, the president-elect’s home base, last week.