russia had paid for his political rise and for his political party. they had worked to install him in power. they totally controlled him. he was their guy. that was how russia controlled ukraine. they controlled the ukrainian president. they installed him in power and told him what to do and he did it. and russia, of course, didn t want ukraine to have better economic ties to the west. they didn t want ukraine to have any ties to the west. they wanted ukraine to only be tied to russia. and so when ukraine had the opportunity to sign on to this pro-european trade deal, russia didn t want him to do it and russia s guy in ukraine, this very corrupt, very compromised pro-russian president said he wouldn t sign that trade deal with europe. he said instead he would sign a knew one with russia. people in ukraine did not want that. they wanted to stop looking east. they wanted to look west instead. so in response they started protesting. in november of 2013. and a few months into it,
here. it is presidents day today, february 20th. presidential historian gonna be with us tonight. she s gonna be with us here live very very much looking forward to that conversation. but it was on this date, which won february 20th in 2014 when the group they call the heavenly hundred was killed. it was actually 118 people, call them the heavenly hundred. the youngest of them was just 16 years old. the oldest of them was 83 years old. it all happened as the culmination of protests that had started the previous november, people were protesting in ukraine. because the government of that country had had the chance to sign on to a big trade deal with europe. a deal that was expected to have big economic benefits for ukraine, it was definitely something that would bring ukraine closer to europe. closer to the west. people in ukraine frothy war, really looking forward to. it this is a popular thing they very much wanted it. but the president of ukraine at the time decided he was
connection to all that was that it was a high-dollar american political consultant who had been paid to be the top political adviser to that wildly corrupt pro-russian ukrainian president. the american political consultant who had been paid to get this pro-russian guy into power, who go had run his campaigns, who had overseen a personal makeover for the guy, who wrote his speeches, his political platforms, who got the guy installed in power, the american political consultant who did that is a man named paul manafort. paul manafort god paid millions and millions of dollars to install the from russian puppet as ukraine s president until yanukovych oversaw a massacre in the streets and had to flee to russia. after years and years and kier getting paid very handsomely to work for pro russian interests in ukraine, paul manafort popped up a few years later to work on his first american campaign in
animal feet. which was super creepy. they found his secret private car collections. they found his private restaurant on a boat that was made to look like a spanish galleon. that he used to float around on in a private lake that he had made for himself. taxpayer expenses. and at the time, what seems like just a bizarre side show american connection to all of that was the fact that it was actually a high dollar american political consultant who had been paid to be the top political adviser to that wildly corrupt pro-russian ukrainian president. the american political consultant who had been paid to get this pro-russian guy into power and had run his campaigns, who had overseen a personal makeover for the, guy who had written his speeches and political platforms, who got the guy installed in power. the american political consultant who did that is a man named paul manafort. paul manafort got paid millions
expense. and at the time what seemed like just a bizarre sideshow american connection to all that was the fact it was actually a high dollar american political consultant who had been paid to be the top political advisor to that wildly corrupt pro-russian ukrainian president. the american political consultant who had been paid to getns this pro-russian guy inton power, who had run his campaigns, who had overseen a personal makeover for the guy, wrote all his speeches, who got the guy installed in power, the american political consultant who did that is a man named palm manafort. paul manafort got paid millions andt millions of dollars to install the pro-russian puppet as ukraine s president. until he oversaw a massacre in the streets of kyiv a and had t flee to russia. after years and years paul