and other countries that the kremlin considered to be in its sphere of influence. they often involved one principal figure, oleg deripaska international operator whose ventures have sometimes aligned with russian president vladimir putin s foreign policy objectives. the question here, ambassador, donald trump said for a long time he did this in his february press conference that everybody knew that paul manafort worked for pro-russian, ukrainians and worked for pro-russian entities and bodies. that part isn t a surprise. does this part surprise you, that he s tied to a russian oligarch? it doesn t surprise me. i ve known about it for a long time. i know mr. deripaska and everything you just said is true about him. he s closely tied to the kremlin. they did business deals. you don t work for the former ukrainian president yan cove itch without dealing with the kremlin. and i just want to pull back a little bit here on all these stories. you know, you raised a very good point how d